Dream of Crimson
by Bluest inkwell
Summary: Harry, Hermione, and Ron are returning for their 6th year at the wizarding school, and tensions are a little high between the friends. What does a new student have to do with this? Updated July 12th 2005
1. Crowded Train

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. She has a far more thought out writing style than I do, and is more based on actual things rather than how people are feeling and what they are thinking. I do not own Harry Potter. I own a copy of the book, but I don't own the ideas or characters used in any of those books. This is a non-profit endeavor, if I was getting money, Mrs. Rowling would get a royalty check. Please, go out and buy the books if you haven't. They are really good.

Crowded Train

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger slowly carried their luggage onto the cherry red steam engine that awaited them on Platform 9 and three quarters, just like it had every year that they had attended Hogwarts, even the years that they had alternate forms of transportation. Ginny had decided to run on ahead with some of her friends, which included Luna Lovegood, and whoever else it was that she was hanging around with these days. Harry had noticed how Ron had seemed to be a little bit worried about his sister ever since she had started hanging around with new people, but that was a fact of life.

Ron sighed softly as they pushed their luggage down the aisle of the train, looking for a room that wasn't occupied. This was becoming more and more difficult with the newer students. It left Harry wondering how they could be gaining as many students as they were when there was still a graduating class every year, not to mention people like Fred and George who just dropped out. Well, it didn't really matter, at the moment they just needed to find an empty, or nearly empty space for themselves.

"This is hopeless…" Groaned Ron, "We might as well just sit on our luggage and wait for the train to stop. I don't want to end up sitting with some Slytherin or something…and spending time with the first years doesn't really sound like that much fun."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron, "Honestly, Ron. How would you know what the first years are like? It isn't like you've spent any time with them or anything."

Ron nodded, "That's sort of the point, 'Mione. I don't want to spend any time with them."

Harry ignored his friends' bickering. They were always like that and after all the time he had spent with them he knew that most of their arguing was just to argue and they didn't even mean most of it. Ron didn't actually dislike the first years. He looked up to his trickster brothers and since they had liked the first years, he liked the first years. He might not admit to it, but he didn't need to in order for the scarred boy to know this.

That was something that was particularly odd that he hadn't thought of until just now. His scar had yet to hurt. This was like some new record for him. Usually by the time he got onto the train he had experienced at least one burning sensation in his forehead as a result of that scar that Voldemort had left on him. Oh well, that just meant that nothing evil was going on that directly involved him. That should be a good thing, shouldn't it?

"Harry, lets just sit in this one? I mean, it only has one person in it, and I don't even think he's awake, we can just sneak in here and wait to arrive at Hogwarts." Hermione suggested. She was always right and even when Ron gave Harry that pleading look that he used in hopes that Harry would chose to side with him rather than Hermione, it wasn't really much of a choice. Sitting out here on some luggage wasn't really a choice that Harry was ready to make yet.

Harry nodded, "We'd better get in there before someone else has the same idea." It wasn't like anyone else was even looking for a spot to sit anymore. Most of the people had already gotten into their desired locations on the train, and it was just starting to move now.

Ron sighed as Harry and Hermione slid open the door and walked into the room that separated them from the rest of the train. This was how it had started to be. Harry always sided with Hermione rather than him. It was like there was slowly this chasm growing between the dark haired boy and him. It wasn't even like he had a romantic interest in Hermione. He was so stuck on that Cho girl that he didn't even see how Hermione had started to look at him a little different. Ron has of course noticed. It was hard not to notice that kind of look. It seemed like everyone knew how Hermione was starting to feel about Harry…except Harry.

It was easy for a lot of people to understand how Ron felt about this too. When he had explained it to them in his letters, even Fred and George had understood how the redheaded boy felt, and more than that they understood why he felt that way. One of his friends had developed an interest in a girl and now didn't have as much time for much other than spending time with her, doing his homework, and doing that defensive training. Hermione had started developing feelings for Harry, and she had already been spending all of her time studying and other such things. He was left standing there while his friends both started chasing after each other and some other random people, and the group was falling apart as a result.

He slowly pushed his luggage into the room by himself. He had been doing a lot of things by himself as of late. He just wished that things weren't the way they were. If only Hermione had fallen for him, or if Harry had returned her feelings then things wouldn't be so bad. Someone might feel a bit left out, but not the same way Ron felt right now. They would all still be friends and they would all be able to find time to help him carry his bloody luggage into to stupid room. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His knuckles had turned white around the strap for his luggage. Getting angry like this wasn't good for him and it wouldn't help him to do anything. It would just end up getting him angry again and that just wouldn't help anyone. Things would be back to normal when they got back to Hogwarts and met back up with Hagrid. Things always got a whole lot better when Hagrid was around. He wouldn't let anyone feel left out like Ron felt right now.

Sitting in the small room of the train was a boy with hair that was even more red than Ron's. It was so red that there was no doubt that it had to be enchanted, or otherwise coloured. This was a scarlet, rather than the fiery orange that Ron's hair was. It was slightly frightening to look at, but once you accepted that it was just hair it was a whole lot easier to accept. It wasn't like he was going to open his eyes and they were going to be blood red too. Well there was that chance, but it wasn't a very plausible one. If he did open his eyes and they turned out to be as red as his hair then there was going to be a nice bit of leaving by Hermione. Studying such a phenomenon wasn't something that she particularly wanted to do before she got to school and the thing that she was studying was in a nice big cage where it couldn't hurt her.

It wasn't like the idea of red eyes frightened her, or the idea of something possessing them frightened her very much. There was always some spell to stop almost any monster, and besides Harry was here, it wasn't like they were in any danger so long as he was around. He would always protect them. He was after all, a very strong wizard in training, and he had after all, survived several encounters with Voldemort. It wasn't like one monster could be as powerful as the dark lord who had left that scar on Harry's head.

Besides, what kind of establishment would they be headed to if monsters were allowed on the train? Of course there was that time with the dementors…but that was completely different. They weren't actually attending the school. Then again Remus had been a teacher…and he was a werewolf…but they hadn't actually been in that much danger from him…had they? Well that wasn't really important. They wouldn't let some monster student attend the school. That would be a completely different scenario. Students were most likely highly more unstable and wouldn't be trusted nearly as much as an adult.

For some reason this whole logic wasn't helping Hermione to feel much better. If this boy that she had decided to sit in a room with was really some monster, it would be her fault when he decided to lash out at them. He didn't look particularly like a monster if you ignored his hair though. Sure he wasn't wearing his Hogwarts robes, but they were handing off of a hook to the side, so that made sense. The jeans that he was wearing were a dark blue, like he hadn't worn them for a long time yet since if he had they would have been faded. The t-shirt that he wore was simple and black, most likely having some sort of design or image on the back since there was nothing on the front. He was wearing a necklace that was basically just a piece of quartz crystal, but that was hardly out of the ordinary.

She'd just have to live with it. Besides, the fact that he was slightly frightening gave her an excuse to cuddle up to Harry for protection. She didn't mind any excuse to do that. She had noticed how Ron was acting weirdly wand had distanced himself from them completely and was sitting closer to the crimson haired boy than he was to them, but there wasn't much to be done about that. She wasn't going to give up pursuing Harry just so she could make sure that Ron felt comfortable. Once she had won Harry's heart everything would be back to normal, and if Ron decided to keep his distance until then, she wasn't going to worry about it.

Harry was going to worry about it though. This was unusual. Usually Ron was right beside them talking up a storm about what he planned to do, and how he wanted to do it. Instead, he was sitting on the other side of the cabin and was being completely silent. He understood how new people might bother Ron a little, and how the fact that he had decided to side with Hermione rather than him might have bothered him a little, but this was extreme for Ron. Usually it was a challenge to say anything to him because he was always talking so much. Either that or Neville would be talking.

That was odd too. Usually Neville would wander around until he had found them so that he could talk to all of them. This time he just had never showed up which was very strange. It wasn't like Harry was going to say anything about it, but he really would have liked to have talked to him. Ron didn't seem to want to talk, and Hermione seemed to be too busy burying her head into his arm to talk too much. She had been acting weird lately, but then again they hadn't seen each other much over the summer. Maybe that was what was going on. Maybe Ron was just giving Hermione a chance to catch up with him and Hermione was just so happy to see him again that she didn't have anything to say.

It all just seemed a little bit tense though. Maybe that was because of this person that they didn't know. That was probably it. It wasn't like they wanted to talk about all of their secrets with a stranger hanging around. Who knew what he could really be up to, or if he was even really sleeping for that matter. Well, that didn't really matter, he wasn't a threat, or he most likely would have already reacted as one. Still, not waking him up was probably as good an idea as any.

The train continued pushing through the countryside all the while growing closer to the final resting place that it would find at the Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. Of course Harry, Hermione and Ron weren't thinking about the challenging classes that they would be facing at the school in this year, but none of them seemed to really care about it. Right now they all seemed to have some more immediate worries in mind.


	2. Welcome Back

The New Student

Disclaimer: I'm still not J.K. Rowling, and as a result, I still don't own Harry Potter, or any of the ideas within. While I own a copy of all of the books thus far that still doesn't give me ownership of the ideas or characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

Welcome Back

The rest of the train trip was silent for the most part. Harry didn't know what to say, Ron had nothing to say, and Hermione had fallen asleep, her arm resting against Harry's shoulder. The food cart had rolled by a few times, but no one really felt like eating at a time like this. The tensions were just a little bit too high. The had set a few minutes ago and they new it wouldn't be long until they reached the famous school of witchcraft and wizardry. Harry was glad that there was an approaching change in scenery. It might give a break in this tension between everyone and then they would be able to talk on the boat ride over without having to worry about strange people. He wanted to know what Hermione had been doing all summer.

The train was slowly coming to a stop. This was what all of them had been waiting for. The final arriving at Hogwarts where they had all the excuses and space that they would ever need to be right next to each other or as far away from each other as possible. Ron was the first to get up while Harry tried gently to wake the sleeping Hermione. He knew that he might as well just leave the two to do whatever it was that they were going to do. There was no point in him telling Harry how Hermione felt, and getting in Hermione's way was just itching to be hexed so many different ways that it would make him cry.

She was sometimes a little too brilliant for her or anyone else's own good. He normally had nothing to fear from Hermione, but in cases like this, it was better just to stay out of her way. She had her eyes set on Harry, and that meant that she was going to do whatever it would take to get him, which was particularly dangerous since she was now at a place where the had access to so many different potions ingredients and magical directions that she would be able to make almost anyone fall madly in love, hate, or any other emotion, with anyone else with a drop. This was quite a disastrous thing with a mind like Hermione's.

While Ron was thinking about all of this and getting his luggage ready to be moved again Harry had managed to wake the sleeping Hermione. She had been having the loveliest of dreams involving Harry and a pottery wheel. It was an excellent dream, which made it that much more painful to be dropped into the cruel reality of her situation with the great Harry Potter. He would still chase after that Ravenclaw, Cho Chang. He would still allow his defense lessons eat up all of his time. He still wouldn't notice how she felt for him.

She was still a girl, she could still dream after all. That had been quite a delicious dream too…She shook the vision of the shirtless Harry with flecks of clay clinging to his chest out of her head. He wasn't going to notice her, so there was no point in thinking about it as much as she was thinking about it right now. He had thing that he wanted to do and people that he wanted to be with, and neither of those included Hermione Granger, much to her chagrin.

Ron sighed softly. He could see all of Hermione's emotions plastered upon her face for the world to see, and Harry still hadn't noticed the prize that had fallen into his arms. He was still looking and didn't realize that he had found something more precious than any Ravenclaw seeker could ever be. Sure Cho was a good catch and all, but Hermione was their best friend and they had both gotten to know her so well. This seeker was never going to be able to compare to the brilliance and shyness of good ol' Hermione. There was no way that anyone could compare, and yet Harry still didn't notice how lucky he was.

Sure Cho liked him. A whole lot of girls liked him. He was the boy who lived. Harry Potter was a household name that everyone knew. Being with Harry Potter was the sort of thing that Ron assumed most girls dreamed of. He was famous, and everything that a normal wizard boy wanted to be. Everyone wanted to be a someone who could trade punches with Voldemort and live to tell about it, just like Harry. Everyone could look up to a hero like Harry potter, and everyone at Hogwarts did. That was probably why all of the girls were practically swooning over the boy. Ginny had even been madly in love with him for a while.

Ron wondered what it must have been like to be in the shoes of the great Harry Potter. Having everyone look up to and love you so much. He didn't want to do it, he just wondered what it would be like. Being that famous would probably be too much of a strain on a poor Weasley boy like Ron, but even to have one person who looked up to and love him like they did to Harry would be enough.

Harry sighed as he pulled his luggage up and got it ready to move. He looked over at the scarlet haired boy for a long moment, "Do you suppose that we should wake him up? I mean we have arrived and I wouldn't want to be left behind if someone was there to wake me up."

The boy moved slowly and let his long scarlet bangs fall in front of his eyes, "I'm awake." He got up and walked over to where his robes hung on the wall and pulled them on before picking up his luggage and looking to the others through his scarlet hair. His eyes were the colour of emeralds and he blinked a few times as he looked at the people who had shared a cabin with him, "I'd like to get going if it wouldn't be too much trouble."

Hermione put her hands on her hips as she looked to the boy, "Have you been awake for this entire time, listening to use and waiting for some juicy secret to come up or something."

"You were all completely silent. I've got no secrets to spread, even if I was listening for them." He spoke to Hermione before looking to Harry, "Maybe you should keep your girlfriend here under control." The boy then pushed past Ron, carrying his luggage into the aisle behind him.

Hermione was blushing furiously at the comment that the stranger had made, while Harry just blinked and looked very confused. This had been a very strange conversation to have for someone that they hadn't even talked to. It was possible that he was just angry because he hadn't heard any big secrets to spread, but that didn't seem very likely. He seemed to be very brooding and angsty, but that may have has something to do with the way he looked and the way he dressed.

Harry had figured all of this even before he woke up, but the fact that he had pushed Ron out of the way to leave like that had just further enforced the point. Well, he had been completely wrong about Hermione and his relationship, so even if he had been listening to whatever was going on with them he didn't catch on to very much. Then again the train ride had been completely silent. Maybe he had just assumed that Ron wasn't part of the group and that Hermione really was his girlfriend. In any case, standing here and pondering this wasn't getting him any closer to those boats.

Ron just stood there. He was completely invisible. He was sure of it now. The rest of the group had forgotten about him, and now he was getting pushed around by strangers like he wasn't even there. He couldn't have been more invisible if he was wearing Harry's stupid invisibility cloak. Why was he even still hanging around here? It wasn't like Hermione wanted him hanging around. He would just be an obstacle in her way of winning Harry and keeping his affections all for herself. He wasn't helping anyone by staying around. He might as well just drop off of the face of the earth.

Slowly they all pulled their luggage out of the cabin and down the aisle, remaining in the same tense silence that they had been in, in the cabin with that stranger. Somehow Harry had pictured arriving at Hogwarts this year differently. He had pictured more talking and less silence. He had expected all of them to get caught up on what they had been doing, and talk about how much they had missed Hogwarts over the summer. This tension just wasn't something that he had been expecting at all. It was like everyone had just grown completely apart from everyone else and that no one really wanted to be at Hogwarts or anywhere else for that matter.

They slowly exited the train and headed towards the boats where everyone was getting on to go across to the castle. Hagrid was up with the first years. He needed to be since they were always the ones that had no idea what was going on. They could vaguely make out his gigantic figure from where they were. He was helping some of the first years onto one of the boats to show how easy it was. He then got into one himself, since having more than just Hagrid in a boat wasn't the best idea because of his size. The lamps showed exactly where the boats were as they crossed the lake towards the castle.

Hermione wasted little time in leading them to an empty boat so they could get across the water. They all loaded their luggage into the relatively small boat and climbed in afterwards, relaxing as the boat started to move trough the water, joining the other lamps that lit the small boats on the lake. They were finally headed off to start another school year. Normally they wouldn't have been able to contain their excitement, but this time they were all completely silent, everyone with thoughts deep inside that kept them far too occupied to worry about the others.

The boat finally came to its resting place on the shore of the grounds of the school. Harry, Hermione, and Ron quickly got out of the boat, carrying their luggage up to the main doors of the castle, just like all of the other students. These three might have been the heroes of the school but they all knew that they didn't receive any special treatment, even when conflict threatened to pull them apart.

The floating candles and eerie songs greeted them as they always did when they entered the great hall of the school. The four house tables, and one staff table also sat there. Harry scanned the staff table to see who had gotten the great cursed job of Defense against the dark arts teacher. He didn't see anyone new, but at least didn't see that blasted, Umbridge woman. He always counted it as a blessing when he didn't have to see her toady face.

Hermione spoke the question that was going through Harry's mind, "I wonder who the new defense against the dark arts teacher is going to be this year. After what happened to Professor Umbridge, I don't expect she'll be coming back for another year."

Harry nodded softly. He hadn't really expected her to be back, it was just a shock to not see someone out of the ordinary to take the position. Then again he wasn't sure that he should have been thinking about any of this with the near brush with death that he had with Voldemort. Well, that always could have been worse. At least he had managed to get away with his life…unlike some people. It still sent sharp daggers of pain into his heart to think that he'd never again see the smiling face of Sirius again.

He clenched his fists tightly. Being the boy who lived didn't mean anything when everyone that he cared about was dying all around him. It was pointless for him to even continue this great battle with Voldemort. It would eventually end with him being all alone in the world with only his hate for Voldemort and his great desire for revenge keeping him from giving up. He felt a warm tear roll down his cheek but wiped it away quickly as he sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Are you alright Harry?" Hermione asked, sounding quite concerned.

Usually Ron would have been right over her shoulder to see if he was alright, but this time Ron just stared at the table, looking like he had been going on a week without any sleep. He was starting to look tired more often now. Harry wanted to just shake off all of the pain he felt and go over to comfort Ron. Ron was one of the people who deserved that sort of treatment, especially without his brothers here to look after him. It was something that Harry hadn't even thought about. Part of him wanted to be angry at the boy for not worrying about him, but he knew that Ron was going through a tough time ever since Fred and George had flown out of Hogwarts leaving it all behind the previous year.

Before Harry got to say anything about how he was feeling, or even try to comfort Ron, Dumbledore had stood and was making his great speech that he started every year with that said how he was happy to see that everyone was back safely, "…Unfortunately, it would seem that some of the staff members haven't arrived yet, but I'm sure when you see them you'll be able to pick them out as staff, rather than students. They are after all, taller." Most of the students laughed at Dumbledore's joke, but Harry just couldn't find it in himself to laugh about much at all at the moment. Just knowing that some people wouldn't be able to laugh anymore hurt him, "Well, let the sorting commence."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione, as well as all of the other students at Hogwarts watched intently as the first years were sorted into their houses. The three clapped every time a first year was put into Gryffindor and were just silent for the other groups. There was no point in clapping for students who they would have to compete against at a latter date. Finally the sorting of the first years was over, and the students waited eagerly for the feast to begin.

"Well, normally this would be the point when the feast would start, but this year we have a very special occasion. We have one student who remains to be sorted, but unlike the other students, he is not a first year. He is a transfer student from one of the other wizarding schools. Blake Allendale!" Dumbledore clapped softly as the boy, who looked to be around the same age as Harry, Ron and Hermione, slowly walked towards the hat. It was the boy that they had sat with on the train. There was no doubt about it. His scarlet hair would have pointed him out if he were in the biggest crowed of the school.

The boy picked up the hat slowly and sat down, resting it upon his head. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched quizzically as the boy sat there silently, and the hat tried to determine where to put the boy. This was a very unusual situation. So far in their experience the only students that had been sorted had been first years, and they assumed that there was a similar splitting system in other schools, so why not just have him go from whatever he was in his previous school to the corresponding house at this one?

There was silence for another moment before the sorting hat spoke, "This student goes to…"

((AN: Ha,ha! You thought I'd spill the beans? Bah! I bite my thumb at you, I am the master of the cliffhanger, even if I'm probably going to finish the next chapter before I'm allowed to submit anything. Hey, but at least we know his name now, right?))


	3. The New Kid

Disclaimer: Guess what folks, I still don't own Harry Potter, any of the characters therein, or any of the ideas expressed in any of the Harry Potter books. I am making no profit out of producing this and just waste my own time and the time of anyone who decides to read this. Please don't sue me, I'm poor. Thanks.

The New Kid

The boy sat down placing the sorting hat on his head. Everyone knew that this wasn't the average situation for this. This boy wasn't a first year. His age made that obvious, and there was the idea that his experience would also prove more evidence to the fact. He sat silently as the sorting hat which had probably seen better days chattered away at him.

"I could put you in Hufflepuff. A lot of good wizards come from Hufflepuff." The hat spoke to Blake.

Blake spoke softly, "I'm sure they do."

"They really do. They are just, and Loyal. I'm sure you'd like it there."

"I've been known o be judgmental perhaps another house…" Blake spoke softly.

The sorting hat thought of this for a moment, "Well…Slytherin are cunning and resourceful. They can use almost anything to their advantage. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to accept you into their ranks."

"Yes, but they might take advantage of me, which I wouldn't be able to stand."

"Well there's always wise old Ravenclaw. You did come all the way here just to learn, so that sounds like a very good placement for you." The sorting hat spoke.

Blake spoke softly into the hat again, "I came because I had to. My parents wouldn't let me go without learning magic. They told me that this would be a good school, and it isn't like I'm afraid of meeting new people or not fitting in."

"Ah you're brave. I'll put you in Gryffindor."

"Perhaps you should just pick somewhere at random for me to go. It isn't like it really matters. They won't accept me no matter where I go. I'm sure this Gryffindor is no different than the others. I'm sure a wise old hat like you will pick a good place for me to be." Blake spoke. He was getting a little irritated with the hat, but it was just a hat after all.

"I can't do that, I'm the sorting hat. I put people where they belong, and you belong in…"

☼

There was silence for another moment before the sorting hat spoke, "This student goes to Gryffindor!"

Blake stood up, took off the hat and sat it back in the chair. He then looked back to the great hall where he was met by complete silence which was slightly frightening after so much chatter from that hat. Slowly the Gryffindor table began to clap to welcome their newest member, telling Blake where it was that he was heading. The Slytherin table appeared to be glaring at him. He was very glad that the sorting hat had not chosen them. The Hufflepuff table just seemed very happy, which he found unnerving. Some of them looked serious, but they probably would have attempted to assimilate him into their team completely and brainwash him into being something that he wasn't. That and the name was a bit of a turn off for him. That left Ravenclaw and Gryffindor which were the only ones now that he didn't think he would have minded being in. Ravenclaw once he had heard about them being all about education just weren't quite what it was that he was looking for. Gryffindor was the only one that he knew nothing about, so they were the logical choice.

He had been hoping to end up in Gryffindor anyway. Those rumors about a Fred and George who were troublemakers somehow appealed to him. Those were the kinds of people that he wanted to meet. He wanted to enjoy the time that he was spending here, and since he heard that these people that he had heard of had left the school he was pretty sure that he wouldn't have found people like that anyway. He was just going to have to hit the books and try not to attract too much attention while he was in the school. It was better that he stay away from these people rather than try to pal up to them. It was most likely that none of them wanted to be his friend anyway, so why even bother entertaining the thought? It didn't matter anyway, his parents had sent him here to learn, not to make friends. If they had wanted him to make friends they would have put him in a normal school where his knowledge of magic would have made him special.

Hermione stared at the boy as he sat down at the end of the table. It was like he was trying to avoid people. He really didn't seem to have very much team spirit, and she wasn't quite sure why he would be picked for their house. The Gryffindor house had always been good with its team spirit and teamwork. Of course Fred and George had quit, but they had always been an odd pair. She wasn't even sure why she was thinking about this boy and wondering why he had been picked to go here. She had another boy that she should have been worried about and that was Harry. He had been crying, and she had to find out why.

Harry waved a hand in front of Hermione's face, "Hermione. You know the food is up, right?"

Ron spoke softly, "Don't say that too loudly. She might decide to go on another holy quest to save the house elves again."

Harry laughed as Hermione started her bickering explaining how house elves were people too. This was the way things were supposed to be going. Ron was supposed to be criticizing Hermione and how she was always worried about those house elves and how they were being treated, and Hermione was supposed to flip out about it and almost attack Ron on the whole situation. Everything was as it was supposed to be.

"Well, if it isn't Potter…How is your doggy friend doing these days?"

The laughter stopped and most of the table went silent as Harry stared at the food in front of him, "Malfoy…"

Draco sneered, "I hear that he had to be put down. That must have broken your heart."

"That's enough Malfoy! You don't need to come all the way over to this table just to bother Harry! Why are you even here?" Hermione slowly got up as she snapped at Draco.

He smiled softly, "Well, it looks like the mudblood is standing up for Potter. He can't speak."

It was at that moment that a fist came crashing into the side of Draco's head knocking him into the ground. Blake glared down at the blonde boy as he struggled to get back up. The punch that he had delivered to the loud mouthed Slytherin was almost as instantaneous as the teachers getting up and heading over to take them both away.

"I think the new boy is defective." Draco snorted as Snape helped him get back to his feet.

Blake narrowed his eyes in rage, "I think if I hear the words mud and blood come out of your mouth again in the same sentence I'll hit you again." Professor McGonagall was pulling the boy back with a forceful hand that he didn't fight against. He slowly turned and followed her submitting as he knew he was supposed to.

Snape slowly pulled Draco to Madam Pomfrey's medical wing, "That would have been a hefty sum of points deducted if they would let me start before classes did."

Ron stared at Draco for a long moment, "Blimey, did you see that? I don't think Draco is hurt too badly…kind of too bad about that, but that was bloody brilliant!"

Hermione normally would have scolded Ron for finding humor in other's misfortune, but it was Malfoy, and she was far too shocked to even think about it. She had just been insulted by Draco, and that boy that she had only talked to for a few seconds had come up and beat him into the ground…literally. No one other than Harry and Ron had ever done that, and they had both had a hate for Malfoy right from the start. Things were getting a little confusing for the brown haired girl.

☼

Blake sat silently in McGonagall's office. She was sitting opposite him at a large table being just as silent. She looked like she was waiting for him to provide an explanation to his actions. She also looked like she had a very long time to wait, which was convenient, since Blake really didn't want to talk about it. That boy bothered him a lot more than most of the other ones and he had deserved everything that he had gotten. He was stupid and narrow-minded and if it hadn't been him that had punched the loud mouthed little dweeb then someone else would have.

"You don't seem to have very much to say for yourself. Either that or you are waiting for me to talk." McGonagall spoke softly and calmly. This wasn't the sort of calmness that Blake had been expecting, but he had heard it before.

He looked at the leg of the desk in front of him, "That boy was being an idiot."

McGonagall adjusted her glasses on her nose and looked at the boy through them, raising one thin eyebrow, "And what exactly was it that you were being by punching him?"

"The word just comes to my mind, but you are probably thinking barbaric and violent." Blake spoke, continuing to stare at the leg of the desk.

McGonagall looked down at some papers and shuffled through them, "And why is it, do you suppose, that those words would come to my mind?"

Blake continued staring at the leg of the desk. It was like he was trying to melt it with his thoughts or something, "Because I am the new kid and acting out is usually a way in which the new kids attempt to get attention so that they fit in." He looked up at her, "You know what. I've heard all of this before. That loudmouth Slytherin boy was calling that girl-"

"Yes, I know what Draco was calling Hermione, and I know that I don't know you well enough to know if we are going to have a lot of meetings like this in my office, but I do know that you haven't had enough time to get to know either Draco, or anyone else. You can't justify hitting people. I don't know what your last school was like but we will not accept violent acts like that here at Hogwarts! Do you understand me?" She remained perfectly calm and collected through her entire speech.

Blake nodded, "We have an understanding…I just don't know what it is that we are going to do about this."

McGonagall took off her glasses and put them on the table, folding her hands over each other on her desk, "Well mister Allendale, was it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I don't know what it is that we are going to do about this. You are going to be around both Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger for a great deal of time. Perhaps I should take them into my office and we can discuss what action we should take as a committee." McGonagall spoke with that same eerie calmness to her voice, "Of course Professor Snape would also have to be present."

Blake shook his head, "There is no need for that kind of action professor. I promise that I will not hit this Malfoy character without good reason."

"Good reason or not, you will not hit Draco Malfoy again. I don't want to hear about it, do you understand? You will spend all of your time in the Gryffindor common room and sit at the other side of all of your classes from him if it is necessary to prevent any conflict, do you hear me?" McGonagall spoke, "You've got a week of cleaning duty with Filch."

Blake raised an eyebrow. That was unusually lenient. Cleaning duty was one of the less difficult punishments that he had been forced to deal with. Was this professor joking with him or something? This couldn't be right. He was afraid to say anything for fear of receiving a harsher punishment, but he couldn't believe that he was getting off with hall duty. That was way too simple.

"Something wrong Mr. Allendale?" McGonagall spoke. She had replaced her glasses and was writing on a piece of paper as she spoke to him.

Blake blinked, "Well that's…um…"

McGonagall nodded, "It is like I said. I don't know you well enough to punish you too harshly. Of course your parents will be notified of this outburst."

Blake nodded quickly, "Of course. That only seems fair."

McGonagall continued writing. A tense silence filled the room as Blake stared at her and she continued to write. He stared at her waiting for something else. There had to be something else. With this he'd just get a howler from his mom and some cleanup duty. That was nothing. Why was this professor being so lenient with him? It didn't make any sense.

"Was there something more Mr. Allendale? You are free to go. Filch will come get you to do hall clean up during your noon break, maybe one day in the morning or evening. I'm sure that is easy to understand." McGonagall continued writing on the parchment.

"Um…Professor…perhaps this isn't the proper time to ask…" Blake shifted uneasily in his seat.

McGonagall looked up at the boy, "Yes?"

"I hear your team is in need of a beater."


	4. First Night Back

Disclaimer: Yup, I am still not Mrs. Rowling, and therefore I still don't own the characters or ideas of Harry Potter. I'm still doing this as a non-profit project, if you want to send someone money don't send it to me. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

First Night Back

"It was bloody amazing!" Ron was walking around the common room throwing his hands into the air, "Absolutely, bloody, amazing!"

"We know Ron. We saw it too." Harry smiled. He would have been tired of hearing Ron go around and talk about how amazing it was, but he was finally out of his depressed state, and that was exactly what needed to be going on. Who would have thought that the punching Draco Malfoy would make him this happy? If he had known before, he would have done it. He definitely wanted to do it some times.

"Tell us again Ron. You had the best viewpoint of the whole thing." Neville was smiling wide eyed as he listened to Ron.

"Well, actually, Hermione had the best view point, but blimey was that ever amazing. He just reeled back and punched that git right in the face! Absolutely astounding. The noise was even amazing. It was just this sort of thud. Wasn't even a crack, just a thud, but knowing that it was Malfoy that the thud was coming from. Just amazing!" Ron smile and sat down slowly, "Wow. That was just…if I could keep one image in my mind forever, that would be it."

Hermione stared into the fireplace. She wasn't sure how she should be taking all of this. On one hand this new boy had done all that when Draco had been insulting her, but on the other hand, it had been a completely barbaric and uncalled for act. It was unnecessary. It was kind of amazing how he had come to her rescue like that when Draco was being his usual slimy self.

She sighed as she continued to leaf through the book. Apparently it was about the medicinal purposes of the liver of an albino rat, born on a full moon. She was sure that it was all very interesting and would be useful at some point in her life, but she just couldn't get interested in it. There were so many things going on in her mind, it was hard to get interested in anything that was in a book about albino rats. She also knew that no matter how much she read about the liver of this albino rat she probably would never need this knowledge. Sure it would be interesting and maybe even useful, but she doubted that the albino rat liver would be more effective than any of the other medicinal ingredients.

"You okay, Hermione?" Harry asked softly, "You haven't really been reading that book, and that's kind of weird for you."

Hermione shook her head to clear her mind, "Yes, I'm fine Harry. I'm learning about the medicinal purposes of the liver of an albino rat born on-"

Harry cut her off, "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Yes, Harry. I'm fine. Why are you so worried?" Hermione snapped at him.

Harry shrugged as he sat back in the couch, "Because the book you are reading is about offensive spells and has nothing to do with the medicinal purposes of anything."

Hermione blushed furiously as she snapped the book shut and placed it on the table. It was true. She wasn't fine. She was anything but fine. She wanted to tell Harry how she really felt about him, but she wasn't sure how. She wanted to go find this Blake guy and tell him off for beating up Draco, but didn't want to sound unthankful. She wanted to do a whole lot of things and right now she wasn't sure how to do any of it without causing more trouble than she already had.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair, "I'm sorry Harry. I guess I've just had a lot on my mind recently. With everything that happened with you know who, and Sirius and all," Harry winced at the mention of Sirius, "I just…I've had a lot on my mind, and I'm sure you have too. I just…I don't know what to do, you know?"

Harry stared at the ground. He knew more than anyone what she was talking about. He knew what she was talking about even more than she did. He was the one who had lost Sirius. He was the one who had sat silently for the entire summer at that bloody Dursley household. He was the one who would never see his godfather again. How could she know what was on his mind? How could anyone possibly understand how he was feeling? He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. None of this was Hermione's fault. Lashing out at her wasn't going to help anyone, and pushing everyone away wasn't going to help him either. He needed his friends in order to get through this.

Hermione dropped her head as she watched a few tears roll down Harry's cheeks, "I'm sorry. I should have said anything."

Harry took off his glasses and wiped away a few tears, "No. Don't worry, it isn't your fault."

"I just wish I could somehow help you though all of this Harry. I want to help you through all of this." Hermione was almost on the brink of tears.

Harry nodded solemnly, "You are helping me through this Hermione. You and Ron are both helping me through this. I don't know where I would be right now if it weren't for the two of you and Dumbledore. I have to keep going for you and Ron."

Hermione nodded softly. She needed to be strong for Harry. She looked up to him so much, and now he needed her and Ron to help hold him up. The best way to do that was probably by acting like themselves, which was easy enough to do. They would be themselves and Harry wouldn't have to be sad anymore. Maybe he'd realize that he wasn't alone anymore too.

The porthole opened slowly and the boy with he scarlet hair walked into the room, his dark robes swaying softly behind him as he walked. The whole room went silent as he came in. His emerald eyes cast a quick, almost frightened looking glance across the room before he headed up the stairwell to the mail dormitories where he planned to get some sleep.

"Woah…McGonagall must have been tough on him for him to come in and go straight up to bed rather than stay down here and party with us." Ron muttered as he walked over to sit on the couch next to Harry, "So what have you guys been talking about?"

Harry smiled softly, "The medicinal uses of the liver of an albino rat."

"Born during a full moon on a leap year? Yeah I read that one too. Darned mandatory reading…How am I supposed to enjoy my summer vacation if I am stuck inside reading about the medicinal uses of a-" Ron started.

Hermione blinked a few times, "Mandatory reading?"

Ron waved his hand in the air, "Oh, yeah. It wasn't very long. You might have forgotten it with all those huge volumes that you read over the summer."

"I forgot the read it!" Hermione started pulling things out of her bag and piling them onto the table.

Harry looked over at Hermione very concerned, "You didn't do your reading? That definitely isn't like you Hermione. I even managed to find time to do the reading."

Hermione stopped in the middle of piling another book onto the pile on the table, "Wait. This was the really short one on about how when crushed, and mixed thoroughly helped to cure burns?" Harry and Ron both nodded, "Oh that really was small. I sort of panicked for a moment there thinking that I had forgotten to read it. It was really too simple though."

Harry nodded, "Well, that's good Hermione. You might want to look over that again. Snape is probably going to test us on it."

Hermione nodded as she started putting things back into the bag where she had dug all of them out of, "Of course I'll read over it again. I, unlike the two of you, come to classes prepared."

Ron laughed, "And that is why you just panicked about reading that little thing?"

"Quiet Ron, or I won't knit you a scarf!" Hermione snapped. She had definitely developed some keen knitting skills from knitting for those house elves, and a scarf from here would probably last a good long while.

Ron considered this for a moment, "Alright, but only because you asked so nicely. In any case we should probably be getting you bed you know, Hermione. We do have classes tomorrow. Maybe Blake had the right idea in hitting the sack as soon as he got in.

Hermione nodded softly. She had to agree. It was best that she wake up early the next morning so that she could get breakfast and be prepared for class. She had a lot of things to think about anyway, and staying up down here wasn't going to help her to do any of that. She'd have a lot more freedom to think if she was upstairs in her own bed.

"Alright you too, but don't bother the new boy too much. He has classes too, you know. I don't want him to be failing because you two won't let him get to sleep, okay?" She stared at them waiting for their response.

Harry nodded immediately. He had no objections to going straight to sleep and not worrying about anything for the rest of the night. In fact it sounded like a fine idea. He, like Hermione, had an awful lot of things to think about, and sleep hadn't been coming easy to him ever since the loss of Sirius. It was better that he try to get to bed now than sit her and never get to sleep.

Ron sighed softly, "I promise, just as soon as he tells us what he got for punching Malfoy, I'll leave him alone and go straight to sleep."

Hermione glared at him, "You'd better! I won't have it for you to be failing either."

((AN: Wow. That was…well, I don't know what that was. It was more so that you guys don't forget that the real heroes of the story are Harry, Ron, ad Hermione, not my original character. I know I kind of bombarded you with him in the last chapter and this was sort of my way of saying sorry for that. Woo, 4 chapters in 2 days. Go me!))


	5. The Crimson Dream

Disclaimer: Can you believe that I still don't own the characters or ideas portrayed in Harry potter, and that I'm still not getting paid for this? Well it's all true. I don't own Harry Potter, the characters, or the ideas, and I am still not making a dime off of this project. Please don't sue me, I'm poor.

The Crimson Dream

Hermione was in a room. She wasn't quite sure where exactly, but it appeared to be decorated in entirely black with the exception of whatever the light source was, which was red. There was a cloaked and hooded figure slowly moving towards her, and although she couldn't yet justify her feeling, she was sure that this was the dark lord Voldemort. He was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do. She looked down at her leg. She had sprained her ankle. Even if she had managed to get up, she wouldn't be able to run fast enough to get away.

"Well, if it isn't the young Potter's friend. Since I can't find him, I guess I'll just have to kill you instead. Don't worry though. He'll soon be joining you." The glowing red eyes watched her from under the hood as he raised his hand to point a wand at Hermione.

This was it. She was going to die. She had been curious to know what it would feel like to die. Perhaps she could take some mental note and tell someone later. That was of course completely illogical. She would be dead, who would she tell? Maybe she could come back as a ghost, but why? It wasn't like it would matter if she came back. It wasn't like anyone would miss her. Harry was always too busy swooning over that Cho girl, and Ron…well he was just Ron.

"Back away from her, monster!" A commanding voice came from what had to be a doorway.

Hermione was almost in tears of happiness when Voldemort looked over to the door and frowned angrily. Harry had come to save her. She was going to be saved by Harry, and everything would be fine. Maybe he didn't love Cho as much as she had thought he did. Oh joy, maybe he even had the same feelings for her as she did for him. This was such a great way to end the day.

Voldemort hissed at the boy who had come in the door, "And just who the hell are you?"

Hermione's heart stopped. It wasn't Harry? If Voldemort didn't know who it was then it couldn't be Harry…and it couldn't be Ron…Voldemort would have known that too. It had to be someone else but who? Maybe it was Ron. Maybe the lighting was just a little off and it was Harry, and Voldemort couldn't see him clearly. It had to be Harry. Harry was the only one who would come to save her. She started crying again. It just had to be.

The dark lord hissed again, "And what is it that you are going to do to me if I don't leave this girl alone? Why should she matter to you?"

Hermione stared at the shadow of the person who had come into the room, most likely to save her. This was something so completely different than normal. Usually she was the one with the great idea to save someone and then Harry and Ron were the ones that put it into action. This time it was like someone else had the amazing idea to save her and then they had put it into action. It could be Harry. He was the only one who she could think of that would be able to do that other than her. If it was she was about to hear what he thought of her.

"If you do anything to harm that girl, I will kill you where you stand. What she means to me is none of your business. Step away from the girl now, or the last thing you will hear will be an unforgivable curse." The demanding voice from the door spoke.

Voldemort laughed softly, "Fool, you think that your puny powers will be able to conjure up something that can hurt me? I am the great Voldemort!"

Hermione was crying again. There was nothing she could do to aid in her rescue. She didn't have her wand, and she couldn't get up to distract Voldemort. She was just stuck there being a pawn, a trap in some twisted game for power, or something. She was just the bait to lure out Harry and now it had worked. He was here and he was going to die in a final attempt to save her.

"If you are so great then why have you stooped so low as to take hostages?" The shadow at the door asked, "And why is it that you haven't just killed the girl yet? You are afraid of me and what I might be able to do. You are afraid of what I might be able to cast to cause you a great deal of pain and suffering before you die."

Voldemort lifted his wand and pointed it at the shadow, "I'm fear nothing! Avada Kedavra!"

There was a flash of green light. Hermione screamed out as tears burst forth from her eyes. Harry was dead and there was nothing that she could do about it. He was dead. The boy who had saved her, the boy who lived, was dead…and it was all her fault. The tears continued rolling from her eyes as everything went dark.

☼

Hermione bolted awake sitting up in her bed, warm tears rolling down her cheeks and a cold sweat all around her. She was sitting on her bed, in the Gryffindor, girl's dormitory. She wasn't in some dark room with the dark lord Voldemort attempting to kill her. She wasn't being saved by some mysterious person, who might have been the new defense against the dark arts teacher now that she thought of it. She was just sitting on her bed after waking up from some sort of nightmare.

Staying here and sitting on something like that nightmare wasn't such a great idea, and going back to sleep just invited her to have another one. This wasn't the sort of thing that was supposed to happen to her. This was the sort of odd dream that Harry was supposed to have and then talk vaguely about because he didn't want anyone to worry but wanted them to be prepared for it incase it was true.

She slowly got up out of her four-poster bed and buttoned up the buttons on her night shirt that she hadn't bothered with while she was just going to be sleeping. Some of the first years were still awake and trying to hide it from her, but that was alright. They were obviously too jittery to sleep. They would be too tired tomorrow to be awake like that.

She walked down the stairs slowly into the common room. The fire in the corner was still going but was far less so than it had been when everyone was awake. It was always like this. Hermione felt the plush carpet under her feet as she walked over to the couch slowly. She'd relax down here and do some reading for a while before she had to go back up and get dressed to go to classes.

She pulled a book about interpreting dreams off of one of the shelves and curled up in one of the armchairs, her feet on the soft cushion of the chair and her knees pressed against her chest as she slowly opened the book. This was the life, a comfortable armchair and a seemingly endless supply of books. Hermione could live like this for quite a long time, and if she was lucky she might even find out what her dream was all about. She would have stayed like that a lot longer but she felt the nagging presence of someone else in the room.

Her head snapped up and she looked around the room for where this other person was, "Who's there?" She whispered softly hoping not to wake anyone who was sleeping.

A shadow in one of the armchairs nearer to the fireplace moved suddenly, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that anyone else was down here. I'll leave you to your studying."

Hermione narrowed her eyes slightly trying to figure out who it was, "Are you one of the first years?"

"I guess you could say that. I'm Blake, the guy that punched that stupid Slytherin boy." He was looking a lot clearer to Hermione, now that she knew who it was that she was looking at, "You're that girl from the train, aren't you? I guess I should apologize for the way I acted."

Hermione looked down at her book, not really caring much about what this Blake guy had to say. She was far more interested in this book about interpreting dreams and finding out what it was that her dream had meant, "Yeah, don't worry about it."

Blake nodded. He had already gotten up and continued to walk towards the door to the male dormitory. Hermione watched him out of the corner of her eye. He definitely wasn't your average student. There was something that was terribly off about him. She shook off the feeling and went back to scanning through her book. There had to be something in here about nightmares like the one she had.

She flipped through the pages slowly looking for anything that would offer her some insight into the world of her subconscious, or whatever it was that was causing this nightmare. She found a whole lot of theories, but not much about actually interpreting dreams. It was like some old man had decided to come up with a whole lot of theories about how something like that might work and then didn't know what it was so he decided it was how to interpret dreams. This book while interesting, wasn't what she was looking for. She sighed as she snapped it closed and put it down on the table beside her. She wasn't sure what it was that she had expected to find, but whatever it was, she hadn't found it.

Hermione sighed softly as she looked over to the fire. Her mind wandered from finding out what it was that her dream had meant to worrying about her friends, Harry and Ron. Ron had been acting distant for the entire train ride and only was now opening up to his old Ron self. Harry was…well Harry just hadn't been the same Harry since last year. He had tried to be the same Harry, but it just wasn't going to happen with Sirius gone and that weight of guilt on the back of his mind that he couldn't do anything about it. It was clear that it was tearing him up inside that he hadn't been able to do anything to save his godfather, but no one was going to talk to him about it for fear that it might just upset him.

Draco had been pretty careless about that whole thing. What was worse was that he probably knew how much it tore Harry up inside to hear that sort of talk from anyone. In a way they were probably lucky that it had been Blake who had punched Draco rather than Harry. They didn't need to start the year with Harry being in trouble, and he would have done a whole lot worse to Draco if he had gotten the chance.

"I guess we'll have to thank Blake later for saving Harry…and maybe I'll thank him for standing up for me against Draco. It only sounds right. He was after all standing up for me when he probably thought I couldn't stand up to Malfoy…" Hermione whispered to herself.

She looked at the fire again. It was probably about time that she head back up to the dormitory to at least look like she had slept through the night. Everyone would know instantly that she hadn't if they didn't already know, but at least she would look like she had been sleeping all this time. She sighed softly as she shifted off of the cushiony armchair and headed back up the spiral staircase to the girls dormitory.

She muttered to herself, "Who knows, I might even be able to get a few more hours of sleep before I have to wake up tomorrow."

((AN: Okay, I know using an original character isn't going to go over well with everyone, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione just went through a terrible ordeal in the last book and are all going to be emotionally destroyed as a result of everything that happened. The only way I could manage to keep this fanfiction from slipping into total darkness was to introduce a new face to keep the characters on their toes and to keep all of you readers from getting overwhelmed by the angst level. Sorry if it upsets you. Maybe you shouldn't read it.))


	6. Stop Staring

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters or any ides portrayed in the Harry Potter books. I make no money off of this and since it isn't showing up on on any of the searches at the moment anyway it isn't like anyone is going to read it anyway. I'm poor. Please don't sue me.

((AN: Oh my gourd! You know how sour skittles are covered in that sour sugar stuff? Well if you get a bag of those things and you notice all of that sugary sour junk that comes off and sits at the bottom whatever you do, do not decide to eat that stuff like you would if they were sour peaches. Oh my gourd…looks for ginger ale cheeks locking up…))

Stop Staring

Hermione and Ron were sitting at a table alone in the library. Harry was off doing another one of his defense against the dark arts classes. This would have normally drawn his two friends in, but they had no idea what it was that they would be doing in defense against the dark arts this year since they had only been to half of their classes for the day. Next was care for magical creatures, and then they finished off the day with some defense against the dark arts training. Right now they were reading up on more of the medical applications of the liver of any rat, specifically albino ones that had been born during a full moon on a leap year. Snape was always vicious with his work assignments.

Ron sighed as he flipped through the book that he had picked out. Rats really weren't the sort of thing that he wanted to talk about ever since the Scabbers incident. Still, not doing things in one of Snape's classes was a good way to fail. Even if he didn't particularly feel comfortable with the whole rat thing, there wasn't all that much that he could do about it. He needed to keep his marks up or there would be problems. With Fred and George skipping out things had gotten tense back at home, and his parents wouldn't settle to have him fail or drop out like his brothers.

"Hermione…do I really need to learn any of this?" Ron continued flipping through the book. He had expected Hermione to snap back almost instantly with some sort of retort about how learning was important that way he could argue the point of learning being important. That was their thing. They would be studying something that he didn't want to learn and he would ask if it was important, she would reply that everything that they learned at Hogwarts was important, and then he would come up with some witty example of something that wasn't. Instead he was answered with silence.

The red haired wizard-in-training looked up to see that Hermione was looking off in another direction. He followed her gaze and found that the source of her distraction was the scarlet haired Blake Allendale boy that had punched Draco the other day. He was polishing one of the tables while Peeves was blowing a raspberry at him. Ron felt a pang of what was probably jealousy burst up within him, but he wasn't quite sure why.

"Hey, Hermione. I think Harry might be making out with Cho at his lessons today." Ron smirked, that was sure to get a reaction out of her.

Hermione stared glassy eyed at Blake, "That's nice Ron…" He had put up with enough of this. He waved his hand in front of her face effectively bringing her back to reality, "I'm sorry, Ron. Were you saying something?"

Ron smirked softly at Hermione, "Stop staring Hermione. I know that it is hard for you to not ogle over the new boy, but we were trying to study here if you remember."

Hermione blushed and frowned as she glared at Ron, "I wasn't ogling over him, Ron! I was just thinking and happened to be looking in his direction."

"Yeah, and that is why you didn't make a fast dash to Harry when I suggested that he could be making out with Cho rather than teaching her how to defend herself against the dark arts." Ron scoffed.

Hermione almost gasped, "Ronald Weasley! I can't believe that you would suggest such an atrocious thing! Harry would never do something like that!"

Ron chuckled softly, "He is only human. I'm only shocked that you didn't defend him when I said it earlier. Kind of proves that you were zoning out while you were ogling Blake over there."

Hermione picked up her book. She was about to throw it at Ron, but he would have somehow interpreted that as to meaning that she really was ogling over the new boy, and she didn't need that kind of talk from Ron. She was already more than a little confused about how she felt about everything that was going on, she didn't need someone else to be second guessing her. She was already second guessing herself enough about what she felt for Harry. This new stranger wasn't helping anything.

"It is just his hair. It gives me the willies." She spoke in a calm voice as she put her book back down on the desk.

"He's just as normal as anyone else that we've met, 'Mione." Ron shrugged softly as he looked over to the guy, "Well with the exception of that sword of his…"

Hermione blushed furiously, "Ron! I don't need to hear about that sort of thing!"

Ron frowned and glared at Hermione, "Hermione, get your mind out of the gutter for a moment. He has this sword, the kind that you hack people in half with…or maybe it's just a sheath or some sort of stick or something, I don't know I've never seen him use it. I don't know if we are allowed to have that kind of thing in the school, but considering the kind of creatures and spells that we work with on a daily basis I don't think it is really that dangerous in comparison."

Hermione frowned slightly. It definitely didn't sound like the sort of thing that someone should have at school, but then again it wasn't like he would actually use it. He was here to learn magic. Then again, why would he bring it to a place like a school unless he had some sort of odd plan to use it. This was very strange indeed. Hermione caught herself staring at him again and quickly averted her gaze back to Ron. She stared at him for a moment like she was waiting for there to be more to the story.

Ron stared back at her. This was the most right that he had felt since he got off the train. Staring into the eyes of Hermione as she stared back into his. He didn't mind staying like that for a nice long time. Harry had absolutely no idea what it was that he was missing. He may have been the boy who lived, but when it came to realizing that there was an amazing girl just waiting in front of his eyes he was a little bit clueless. Ron sighed as he looked down to his books again a light blush creeping into his cheeks.

There was a moment of silence as both of them stared at their books, feeling a little silly about what had just gone on, "Look Hermione. I'll just leave you here to stare at Blake. It isn't like you have any remaining interest in studying for classes."

Hermione stood up suddenly, "Of course I want to study for classes! That is why we came here. Why are you leaving, Ron? You need to get some studying done too!"

Ron stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at Hermione as she stood there almost pleading for him to stay. It made him feel a little better to know that Hermione wanted him to stay, not Harry, not Blake, but him, no matter what the reason was. It was just nice to know that someone wanted him around, especially Hermione. Harry really had no idea what it was that was waiting for him in Hermione…and that was why he had to walk away from her. Hermione was always going to be waiting for Harry, no matter was happened, there would always be that part of her that was waiting to be realized by him.

Chances were that Harry was never going to notice that Hermione was waiting, and that it was him that she was waiting for though. It was better for everyone that he just hang around to keep her out of trouble until Harry made his decision. That was what friends did for each other, they keep all of the options open incase something happens later that makes everything a whole lot more clear, and then they didn't say 'I told you so' when the dust settled. That was how Ron rationalized that he was helping everyone to be happy by not walking away, and part of what made him sit back down.

He opened his book and looked at Hermione as she smiled softly at him for doing what it was that she had asked. That was the great thing about Ron. He always did whatever anyone asked him to do. Even if he wasn't quite sure about it he would do it because he had been asked to by one of his friends. She smiled softly and felt a shiver of happiness run through her. Ron was always someone that she could lean on no matter what problems she was having and no matter what problems he was having. He was always there to be a shoulder to cry on, or to be that person who would help you walk to class if you had broken your leg. He was like a rock.

That made her smile. He was always a stable person to lean on and was always there. He was the kind of person that you could run up to after a hard exam, scream out your frustrations to, explain why it didn't go well, and he would not only pretend that he cared, but he would also try to comfort you. He was amazing like that. She smiled softly as she flipped through her book. Even the way that he was helping to make sure that she studied right now was amazing. This was the sort of thing that best friends were supposed to do for each other.

Yet somehow, deep inside she had that lingering to be with Harry and help him through the problems that he was going through at the moment. Harry had lost all of his family and yet he was still going strong. He might not have been the same rock that Ron was, but he was trying to be a good friend, and after everything that he had been through that couldn't be easy. There were times when she just wanted to curl up in a corner and never see anyone ever again, and she had never lost family to people like Voldemort. She admired the way that he kept going on strong and wanted to be close to him so that some of that strength might just rub off on her. It was stupid she knew, but Harry was just a different kind of rock.

"Hermione. You're staring again. I swear, people are going to start to think that you've got a crush on him if you keep ogling him like that." Ron said chuckling to himself as he watched Hermione turn a deep shade of red.

"Ron! I'm not ogling! I'm thinking!" Hermione almost screamed at the freckled boy in front of her.

Ron laughed softly, "Whatever you say, 'Mione, whatever you say…"

((AN: Omigourd! I finished it on time to post it tonight! Go me! Not that anyone is ever going to be able to read this, but still, yay! I'm so happy!))


	7. Defend Yourself

Disclaimer: Well, still not owning Harry Potter, the characters, or the ideas represented in the Harry Potter Books. No one is sending my any money for writing this. I'm poor. Please don't sue me.

Defend Yourself

Hermione, Harry, and Ron slowly walked down the hall that led to defense against the dark arts class. They had just come from care for magical creatures where Hagrid had been trying to get them to work with some sort of giant, orange, snail. They had shared some good laughs when Draco had refused to work with the snail and had gotten slimed as a result of showing it disrespect. Apparently the snail had the uncanny ability to move faster than most land animals would be able to, which seemed terribly ironic to Harry, since the only snails that he had come across had been extremely slow and crunched under foot.

"Going to this defense against the dark arts class really doesn't seem that important to me anymore…it isn't like we are going o get to know the teacher for future reference next year or anything. They always seem to end up in disaster, which is kind of funny when you think about it." Harry to spoke, "Not in the 'ha ha' sense of course, but none the less…"

Hermione glared at Harry. Ron was just walking silently, so it was obvious that he wasn't going to have anything to say on the subject. She sighed before she spoke softly, "Harry, you are the biggest target for dark forces. Maybe you should be trying to learn a few things about how to defend yourself against them."

Harry rolled his eyes at Hermione, "Hermione. I haven't been zapped by Voldemort yet, have I? I don't think I'm in very much danger if I can dodge a dark force like that."

Hermione almost stopped walking, the vision from her dream flashing back to her where Harry had come to save her. He had ended up dying right in front of her. If she could stop that from happening right now by making sure that Harry didn't skip out on a class then she was going to do it. She wasn't going to let Harry skip out on a class and then die as a result. She just wasn't going to end up staring at him as a flash of green light from the dark lord Voldemort killed him. She wasn't going to do that!

She grabbed Harry's wrist to make sure that she had his full attention, "You aren't skipping out on classes while I am around to make sure that you get to them, do you understand? I just won't let you do that sort of thing. You might not need the course to save yourself from some kind of evil, but you need it in order to pass and eventually graduate."

Harry sighed. He had known that Hermione wasn't going to let him skip out on the class no matter how useless it was to him. She wasn't the kind of person that would let him just give up and have that be that. He knew he couldn't win against her so there wasn't even any point in fighting with on the subject. Not that it mattered very much. He'd just wander into class, know everything that he needed to know and come out with a terrible mark anyway when the teacher didn't like him.

"Look, you're either going or you aren't." A voice came from behind them, "I don't really care all that much what you decide to do with you're time here, I intend to pass, and can't do that with you blocking the way in."

Harry almost froze. That sounded exactly like the sort of thing that Malfoy would say. He had been itching to tear Malfoy a new one ever since that comment he had made about Sirius. Now he finally had the chance to say or do something that would make up for the way Draco had made him look. He spun around and was about to say something when he ended up staring into the emerald green eyes of the new boy.

Blake blinked as he looked back into the glasses of Harry, "Hello? Fellow Gryffindor? I'd like to get past you so I can get to my class please?" Harry blinked slightly and stepped to the side to let Blake into the class. He hadn't expected one of his housemates to be like Malfoy and was kind of shocked. Blake stopped and looked at Harry for a long moment, "Wait a minute…you're that Harry Potter guy, aren't you?"

Harry nodded softly, "Yeah, that's me."

"Cool. I guess I'm kind of sorry about the snipping at you to get out of the way. I suppose you don't even need to attend class in order to pass this one, eh?" Blake smiled softly and walked into the class before Harry had a chance to answer.

Ron watched Blake enter class and then looked over at Harry who still seemed swallowed up by the whole shock of the situation, "That guy is a little weird. I wouldn't let him get to you Harry…but I don't think he was trying to be mean or anything."

Hermione smiled softly. She wasn't especially happy, it was just very odd and she didn't want to look like she was so freaked out that the others worried about her. It was just that Blake guy was more than just kind of weird. He was out and out weird and everything about him frightened her, even if only a little bit. She shook off the feeling and stepped into class. Being publicly freaked out by some student wasn't any good. Ron would be making snaps to her about how she would have been overjoyed if some ogre was taking an interest in learning and that being upset about a normal student with some odd hair was totally unfair and judgmental.

Harry blinked a few times, trying to assimilate what had just happened. He had just about to spin around and punch out this guy, and then he had felt like carrying through with it, even though it wasn't Draco, and then he had turned out to be half decent. Not only that but he hadn't made a big deal over the fact that he was Harry Potter, the boy who lived. It was just like he was any other student.

Neville came running down the hall looking a little panicked, "Why are you guys out here? Didn't class start already? I mean I forgot where we were and I was all the way at the other side of the school I thought for sure that I was going to be late."

That was what Harry needed to snap him back to reality and he spun around on his heel, rushing into the class, closely followed by Neville and Ron. He blinked for a moment as he looked around and took the open seat next to Hermione. He took notice of how Draco was sitting near the back of the class with Crabbe and Goyle, and also of how Blake was sitting on the other side of the back of the class with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't pay much attention to the teacher as he sat down since he wasn't sure that he saw one yet.

A younger woman with half moon glasses and long blonde hair that was tied back into a ponytail came out of the office that was connected to the defense against the dark arts classroom. She smiled as she looked over the room with startlingly green eyes taking notice of everyone in the class before looking down at some parchment that she had, probably a lesson plan for the day.

She spoke softly with a kind and soft voice that made Harry feel a lot better about this class, "Well, I'm pretty sure that you are all here. I was unfortunately met with an unexpected delay when I was headed over here and missed the welcome back feast. I assume everything was good there?"

"For those of us that didn't get punched." Draco growled as he looked over at Blake who just stared uncaringly forward as his book, taking no notice of the blonde boy and his comments.

The professor slowly stepped forward, her long black dress swaying softly with the movement. She examined Draco for a long moment and then smiled softly as she looked back to the rest of the class, "Well I can understand how a punch could ruin an event like that."

Harry smiled softly. There was Draco wining to the teacher like he always did whenever he got the chance. Of course this teacher had no idea what he was talking and wasn't going to care that much. She didn't even know who Draco was, so why would she care if he had gotten punched. For all she knew he had deserved it, which he had. It was too bad that that part of the story was going to be left out when Draco decided to tell what happened.

"I was just talking to some of my friends at the Gryffindor table and then that new kid came over and punched me." Draco snorted, "Maybe you should keep an eye on him to make sure that he doesn't do anything like that again. I'm not sure that I feel particularly safe around him." He pointed at Blake when he said 'him'.

Blake was still paying no attention to any of this and was quietly and idly flipping through the pages of his book. He didn't care about the attention. It wasn't like it mattered all that much. He stopped to read one of the pages while most of the class was looking back at him to see what kind of reaction he would have to Draco's pointing him out in the middle of class like that.

"Yes, I'll make sure to keep an eye on him, Draco. I won't let him get close enough to punch you again." She smiled reassuringly at the Slytherin boy.

Draco smashed his hands into the desk and stood up getting most everyone with the exception of Blake and the teacher to jump, "And what if he casts some sort of spell at me, what are you going to do then?"

The teacher smiled wider at Draco, "Well, my dear student. That is why you are here. I'm going to teach you how to defend yourself so that if any other student or other wizard were to attack you with magic, you would be able to defend yourself against it." She turned and walked back to the middle of the front of the class again, "Now if you would be so kind as to sit down I will begin the class."

Neville raised his hand slowly, "Um…ma'am?"

The teacher nodded to Neville, her hands behind her back, "Yes?"

"What is it that we should call you? I mean we could just call you professor, but we don't know your name." Neville spoke, almost nervously.

The professor smiled softly to him and nodded, "How foolish of me. I haven't introduced myself. I just assumed that they would have told you who I am at the starting of the school year ceremonies." She smiled softly and bowed slightly, "I am Clarissa. I'll only call you by your first names, so that is all I would ever expect from you."

Hermione raised an eyebrow as she stared at this new teacher. She was an odd one. She was very odd indeed. It was like she could really argue with a professor though. If she wanted to be called by her first name all the time then that was perfectly fine. Professor Clarissa didn't sound very proper, but it wasn't like there was much of a choice in the whole situation.

"Today we will be learning why it is important to protect yourself against dark arts and the sorts of things that can happen to you if you were to meet a dark wizard and were not prepared for a dark spell." She adjusted her glasses on her nose, "I know book work isn't very exciting, but it is important to know why it is that we study this and what can happen to you before we do anything. It well help to explain why it is that even Harry Potter, is taking this class."

She began to write the numbers of the pages that the students would need to read to understand the importance of defense against the dark arts as a class on the board. Harry noticed that Draco was putting more effort into whispering to his Slytherin cronies than he was spending on taking down the page numbers, but that was his problem. The Gryffindor boy just shook his head as he flipped open his book to the first page he would have to read. Malfoy always had something to say about everything. Always.

((AN: Hey dudes. Again I feel like I am bombarding you with Blake rather than important people like Harry, Hermione, and Ron. That is why I threw in some Neville for this chapter…and because he is kind of a secondary major character…anyway, here is to hoping that this starts working soon, eh?))


	8. I'm thinking Party

Disclaimer: I still lack ownership of the characters of Harry Potter, and all of the ideas portrayed in the book. I make no profit off of this, or any other chapter in this story. I am doing it purely out of boredom and the joy of writing. I'm poor. Please don't sue me.

I'm Thinking Party

Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all sitting in cushiony armchairs in the Gryffindor common room, looking over their notes from the various classes that they had. The first weak had been relatively simple. It was basically a refresher in everything that they had forgotten over the summer. The defense against the dark arts was the only class where they had actually gone into why it was important to study. Of course potions was the only class that they had actually gotten homework in so far.

Hermione was studying only for the other two to have the benefit of her being around as a resource to study from. She was actually reading a copy of the daily prophet while the other two worked away at reading and periodically came up with questions that were more difficult to uncover in the text. That was how she had been able to continue to contribute to the team. She had always shared her notes, explained things, and answered questions to make sure that the other two had at least some chance at passing. She sometimes found herself wondering how they ever would have gotten as far as they did if it hadn't been for her notes and quick wit. Someone in the group had to keep their wits about them and study when the other two couldn't.

She had found an interesting article about a joke shop in Hogsmeade that was making a whole lot of money and hadn't been there before. That was obviously Fred and George. It was good to know that they were making a living off of what it was that they loved. Few people managed to do that with their lives. Hermione smiled softly. Maybe she could end up being a teacher at Hogwarts or something, and she could make a living off of being as smart as she was.

"No way are you guys still studying…you people are going to waste away all of your time studying for stuff that we probably won't even cover…" Blake sighed as he watched them from the doorway that he was leaning on. It led up to the male dormitories, "You should all be at Ravenclaw…that is where the bookworms are supposed to be…heh…Ravens and bookworms…that's pretty good…."

Hermione looked up from her paper and raised an eyebrow at Blake didn't seem to have any interest in studying. Perhaps she had been wrong about him when she had thought that he was here to be a student. Maybe he was just here because he had no choice, or because he thought that it would be a good place to party. He was wrong of course, but it wasn't like she had any power to do anything about it.

Harry was continually reading over the same sentence, over and over again. He felt stupid about asking Hermione to help him every time that he had the smallest of problems. He wanted to be able to prove that he could do all of this one his own, without anyone's help. He was the boy who lived, but that didn't matter all that much if he couldn't do some simple homework on his own. Besides, being the boy who lived wasn't so great when everyone around him seemed to die catastrophic and painful deaths. He had to prove that he could survive on his own, and then maybe everyone else would stop gravitating to him in hopes of being able to help him.

Hermione looked back to her newspaper, "These two need to take advantage of every chance that they get to study. They always seem to fall behind by the end of the year, and that is why I am here to make sure that they do study and so that they can ask me any questions that they have."

Blake ran his hand through his scarlet hair, living the bangs that were over his eyes out of his face for a moment, "Guys…I'll save you some time. I don't think we have to study for, care for magical creatures. I don't really think that we have to study for charms, but I can understand the need for practice. In potions we've already had some homework, which is basically studying, and for Divination, as long as we remember that there is a bad sign over Harry and he is going to die a quick and painful death I think we'll do fine."

Ron nodded to Blake. He had been about to say that exact speech just before Hermione had decided to make sure that he knew she would be making sure he studied. He liked arguing with Hermione, but he liked hanging around with her and being able to stick close to her more. Any time that he was just with Hermione and Harry was time that he cherished. It was time that he was spending with his friends, and even when he was studying something like Potions, it was time well spent.

"What about Herbology and History of Magic?" Hermione spoke, still reading through her paper.

Blake waved his hand in front of him, "Herbology is simple, and History of Magic…well, that class is something I'm going to fail anyway. Binns will put your right to sleep, so it isn't like I'm going to be able to write any of the tests. Besides, I don't think he likes me."

Hermione turned the page in her newspaper before she spoke again, "How can he not like you? We haven't even done anything in that class yet. You haven't even said anything."

Blake smiled softly as he wandered over to the chairs where they were sitting and leaned on the back of the one that Hermione was sitting in, reading over her head, "I'm violent, unrefined, and fell asleep in his class before he started talking. I don't think he likes me very much."

"I'm not sure that I blame him. You are brutish, and you are violent, and you are unrefined." Hermione snapped as she closed her copy of the daily prophet and put it down on the table in front of her, "If you put half the energy that you put in being a brutish ogre into learning you would be able to be the one sitting here answering questions instead of me."

Blake chuckled softly, "Wow. You're still angry about that whole thing at the feast? I thought you'd be thanking me for making that guy shut up. Well, I guess they can't all be winners, now can they?" He pushed up off of the chair and looked at Harry and Ron, "Hey, you guys know what? I think I really like the idea of having a party to celebrate me not having to run cleanup duty with Filch anymore."

Ron and Harry both looked up at the same moment. Not only had a party been mentioned, but it was in celebration of the very quick end of Blake's punishment. Anything that had to do with Draco Malfoy being punched in the face was an occasion to celebrate. This was a chance to get to know Blake better if nothing else came out of it. Ron closed his book with a snap and started standing up.

"You sit back down, Ronald Weasley." Hermione snapped as she stood up and pointed at the redheaded boy, "I forbid either of you from having anything to do with this party. We aren't going to encourage him to hit people." She glared at him, "Even if the school is going to let him get away with it."

Blake sighed and shrugged as he turned to walk out of the common room, into the main hall, "Suit yourselves. I'm gonna go get myself a nice big Saturday breakfast. You all know where you can find me if you decide to change your mind."

The comment about the large lunch reminded Harry that he hadn't eaten much for breakfast and hadn't eaten anything since. He sighed as he looked back down to the book. He still hadn't made any progress in the book, and now most likely wasn't going to anymore. The only things running through his mind now were thoughts of food, and now that Blake had announced where he was going, food wasn't going to happen for him. Hermione would read it as him trying to go off and support Blake, or secretly sign up for his party. He was going to be stuck here to wonder about food and pretend to study until she felt that she could let them leave.

Ron sighed as he sat down. Hermione was being bossy just like his first impression of him back on that first train ride had been. He let the text drop onto the desk with a loud thud and slowly flipped the book open to a random page. Hermione glared at him. He stared at her and turned the page slowly to the next one, without ever have looked down at the book. She was against him having any sort of fun and he had no idea why.

Hermione snorted as she flopped back into her cushiony armchair, "I won't have either of you associating with him. Even if he is from our house, as far as I'm concerned he is just as bad as Malfoy. At least Malfoy has never been physically violent."

Ron snorted, "Hermione, you are being a complete hypocrite! You have hit Malfoy before, and now when someone else does it you get all angry with them?"

"That was completely different!" Hermione snapped at him.

Ron glared at her, "How is that?"

Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, "I didn't go parading around about how I had managed to do it and then get off with just a slap on the wrists for it. He is going to have this party, and when everyone shows up it is going to encourage him to do something like that again. Next time it will cost us a nice deal of points. Is that what you want?"

Ron growled softly as he looked down at his book. He wanted to come up with something witty to say, but Hermione was right. He didn't want to lose the cup just to see Draco get punched again. As much as he wanted to preserve the memory of Draco getting punched in the face, it didn't even compare to the memory of winning the house cup. There was no way to get both, another vision of that punch and win the cup. It was whichever he would have liked more and that meant the house cup.

Harry slowly got up, closing his book, "I'm not getting anything done here, and I've got to get to one of the defense against the dark arts training meetings in about twenty minutes. I'm going to go grab a quick lunch and head over to that." He looked at Hermione's angry expression, "I promise I'll finish this studying while Blake's party is going on. You will be able to watch me do it if you want, Hermione."

Harry left through the porthole, which left Hermione and Ron alone in the room. Hermione glared angrily at Ron as he continued to silently flip pages, not paying much attention to anything that was on any of them. It was obvious that he wasn't studying and was just sitting there. Why did she even bother trying to help these 'friends' of hers to pass? It wasn't like either of them cared about their schooling or the lives that they would be going into after they graduated.

"There goes Harry to have some fun with Cho and everyone else in that little club that he's started." Hermione glared at the porthole now instead of at Ron, "I suppose you are just killing yourself laughing inside about how Harry just ditched me for some time with Cho."

Ron glared at the pages of the text book, "Shut up Hermione." He looked up at her as she blinked in complete shock, "Marietta quit, Cho quit, Michael quit because Cho quit, Ginny quit because Michael quit, you quit, I barely show up to those anymore. Harry sits there and trains the few people who quit because they had only joined to take down Umbridge. If you were still a member you would know that he is there wondering how many people are going to show up every time he goes there." She stared, shocked at him, "We don't have _fun_ anymore, Hermione, and I'm tired of you being jealous over nothing. Some of us actually have reasons to be jealous!"

Hermione stared at him for a long, long moment. He was right, she was being jealous over nothing. Harry wasn't hanging around with any girls other than Luna Lovegood, and everyone with the exception of Luna knew how he felt about that. He was just sitting there being lonely, probably beating himself up about not being able to save Sirius. That was likely what Harry was doing. He blamed himself completely for the death of Sirius and was going to end the DA immediately when it had happened, but now he was going back all the time to a place where he was teaching skills that he felt he should have been able to save his godfather with. He was punishing himself.

Hermione got up. Ron got up immediately after her and glared at her, "No. You are sitting right back down. I'm not going to let you rush off to Harry. You are going to sit down because right now he is doing what he thinks he needs to do. He is offering a service to the students of Hogwarts, and if you go and see him right now I guarantee that he is going to tell you tom come right back here." He was pointing his finger at the chair that Hermione had gotten up from, "Sit. I'm not going to listen to you cry because I let you go see him."

Hermione sat down and sighed loudly. Ron picked up his book and tossed it to her side of the table, "What are you doing?"

Ron looked at her, "You're going to help me study so that I can get this done, and then I'm going to take you to that stupid party that Blake is going to throw so you loosen up!"

☼

The party that night wasn't really much. It was just a bunch of them all in the common room drinking butterbeer. It was just like any other day in the common room, only with more butterbeer, and more jokes going around. Hermione didn't see much of the point in any of this. She could have gone in any seen this any day. Instead she was sitting here being forced to be part of it.

"This wasn't so bad, now was it, Hermione?" Ron smiled softly, as he looked at Hermione. He took another swig of his butterbeer and sat down beside her, "I mean it isn't really like we're saying, 'hey, that was a great hit back there, do you think if I punched Malfoy that I'd get a party' or anything, now are we?"

Hermione sighed. She felt terrible for being at this party. It was against everything that she believed in. People weren't supposed to be violent for no apparent reason and then be proclaimed heroes for it. She could have taken care of Draco all by herself, but instead Blake had stepped in and took the matter into his own hands. Now he was being hailed as a hero for not knowing enough to keep out of everyone else's business.

Blake leaned over the back of the chair that Hermione was sitting in and looked down at her, "Wow, I thought you were the big naysayer about my party. Who would have figured that someone would be able to get you to join in the festivities?" He pushed himself off of the back of the chair and waved his hand in the air, "Hey, everyone. This party even has the approval of Hermione!"

Hermione closed her eyes and sank down into the chair. More than anything right now she wanted to be invisible. She was now the center of attention, all because of Blake, who had now wandered off to go talk to someone else, "…inconsiderate bastard…"

Ron laughed a little, "What's wrong Hermione? Don't like being in the spotlight?"

Hermione let her head rest in her hands. She could have been doing a million other things right now that didn't involve being here. She could have been sleeping, or studying, or any number of other things that would be far enough away that she wouldn't even care that there was a party going on. She could have been out finding Harry, and that would have been a great evening for her. Instead she was at a stupid party, being made into the absolute center of attention, by some barbarian who she had probably not said much more than a few sentences to.

"Hermione? I thought you were the one who told us specifically not to be here." It was Harry. She could tell from the voice. She had listened to that voice so closely that she knew exactly what it sounded like.

This was not her night. Now she was pictured as even more of a hypocrite than she was before. She couldn't help but wonder if this had been part of Ron's plan all along. Just to humiliate her and make Harry hate her or something. It didn't make much sense, since he had been staying out of her way when it had come to Harry so far, it was just something that she couldn't help but think. Maybe he had some secret reason that she hadn't thought of to not want her to be with Harry.

"Are you okay Hermione? You look a little sick. Do you need to see Madam Pomfry?" Harry's voice seemed concerned. Hermione didn't know if he looked concerned. She was too busy wondering if she could grow claws so she could gouge her eyes out.

She spoke softly, "I'm fine Harry. I think I just need to get a little sleep." She then calmly got up, turned, and walked to the door to the girls dorm, walking up the spiral staircase and vanishing to her dorm.

Neville hand wandered over to where Ron was sitting and Harry was standing, "Wow…What do you think was the matter with her?"

Harry shrugged as he looked at the door to the girl's dorm. He knew that he couldn't follow her up there to see if she was alright. He had absolutely no idea what was wrong with her. She was just so confusing to him sometimes. They were at a party, and parties were supposed to be fun. Hermione had looked like she was having the least fun in her entire life before she had left.

Ron yawned, "She was probably tired. I have to say, I'm a little tired too, aren't you guys?"

Harry, and Neville blinked as they looked down at Ron. He slowly go up and wandered over to the boy's dormitory door, opened the door and wandered up the spiral staircase. Both Harry and Neville shrugged, just as confused about Ron as they had been about Hermione and went back to partying and cracking jokes with the first years.

((AN: Wow! That was long, and wow, Ron almost admitted his feelings for Hermione…that's like a double wow!))


	9. Strategy is Everything

Disclaimer: I am making zero dollars and zero cents in the production of this. No money for me. I don't own Harry Potter, the characters therein, or the ideas that are expressed through any of the books in that series. I am poor, and once again ask that you please refrain from suing me.

Strategy is Everything

Harry Potter walked into defense against the dark arts class with a pessimistic outlook on the entire thing. They were going to be once again learning nothing of how to defend themselves and instead be learning about why it is important to learn that type of thing. This was the reason that he had wanted to start Dumbledore's Army. It was because they never learned anything that they could use to save themselves in this class anymore. It was all theory work and learning about how in ancient times one wizard used a spell to save himself and another used a different spell. It was like learning history of magic, only on a narrower scale.

He looked around the room to see that all of the desks and chairs were now gone. He also saw that the few of his fellow classmates who had already arrived where as shocked and confused as he was about this one. He looked around the room for their professor, Clarissa, and couldn't spot her. She was probably in the study that was attached to the class. In any case she wasn't here so he had no one to ask about what was going on other than the students who were there. They all looked too confused to give him any answers anyway.

"Blimey! What is this!" Ron said as he came into the class, "Shouldn't there be desks and that sort of thing?"

The door to the study opened and the blonde haired, green eyed, professor stepped out of the study smiling before she answered Ron's question, "Desks would only get in your way, and I doubt that you would find desks in a situation where you were put against a dark wizard."

Hermione had followed Ron into the classroom and looked around slightly less shocked than everyone else. She had assumed that eventually they would some training like this. It was only natural that this would happen at some point. It wasn't going to be like last year where they had learned nothing about defending themselves. Their learning wasn't being gauged and lowered by the ministry this time. Of course there had been that chance that they still wouldn't' be learning anything, but it was a small one. It looked like the class had been set up into something to simulate battle conditions.

Ron looked around and then over to Hermione, "'Mione…what exactly is going on here?"

Hermione smiled softly and patted Ron on the back. He may have been great at comforting her and making her know that she was an important person in the Gryffindor house, but he wasn't always particularly quick on the uptake. She knew he would catch on fairly quickly when the teacher started explaining things in a little bit more detail. It looked like today was going to be another lesson in wizard dueling.

Clarissa cleared her throat softly, "Alright, I realize that some of you are still just coming in, but allow me to explain this so that you understand what is going on. I'm sure the students that arrive late will pick up rather quickly…" She smiled as she looked around the class.

Blake was leaning against a corner, his arms crossed over his chest. He remained completely silent. Harry had seen him standing there when he had come in. He hadn't bothered to go over and talk to him, even though the boy looked like he needed someone to talk to. It looked like he had a fair deal of troubles going on in his life. Harry was an expert on troubles going on in life. That didn't mean that he was going to go over and talk to the boy though. He had enough troubles without trying to pick up someone else's.

"We are going to practice strategies in protecting yourself. The best way to do this is through trying to protect ourselves from each other." Clarissa spoke softly before looking up to see Draco wandering in late, "To provide us with an example I'll take Draco Malfoy…and who would like to participate in a little spar with Malfoy?"

Draco sneered as he looked out at the rest of the class, "Why don't you choose Allendale over there? He looks like he could use something to keep him on his toes."

Harry glared at Draco. It was obvious that he had been waiting for a chance to get back at Blake over that punch that he had received during the feast. This was the perfect chance for him to throw some spells and some cheap shots at Blake for making him look so stupid. What was worse was that there wasn't going to be a way for Blake to get out of it this time, and Draco wasn't going to get sent to anyone's office for being a little bit violent. This was stupid.

"How about I take you on instead, Malfoy!" Harry took a few steps forward, pulling his wand out and getting ready.

Clarissa held her hand up, "No. That just won't do. I do believe that Draco has chosen wisely. I am not going to encourage anyone to blindly charge into a battle when there is a chance that they can avoid it. I wouldn't encourage any of you to run into a battle."

Blake slowly stepped forward pulling his wand out and lining up with Draco for the duel. Draco smiled like a Cheshire cat. He was going to play dirty and Blake was going to suffer. That was the way that Draco did things. He was the expert at playing dirty. He wasn't a Slytherin for nothing. They were good at taking advantage of any situation and changing it to their liking.

"Now students. The goal is to disarm your opponent. Use any method that you feel is necessary in order to do this." Clarissa smiled as she backed away, "You may now begin."

Draco raised his wand and instantly spoke the disarming spell, "Expelliarmus!"

Blake pointed his wand straight at Draco as he started his spell, "Lumos!" The flash of light caused Draco to instinctively shield his eyes, causing his spell to go off into the ceiling. Blake spoke again, quickly before Draco could recover, "Accio, Draco's Wand!" Draco's wand quickly left his hands and came bolting to Blake who caught it and remained standing, his wand pointing at Draco, Draco's wand tightly in his hand, "I win."

Draco growled, "He cheated!"

Clarissa smiled softly and looked at Draco with her piercing emerald eyes, "And how was it that Blake cheated Draco? I simply told him to disarm you. I didn't say that he had to go about it in a specific manner. Ten points to Gryffindor for that amazing use of strategy by Blake by the way." She slowly walked over to Blake to collect Draco's wand, "This leads us into today's lesson in strategy. Lumos and Accio are simple spells that, as Blake demonstrated, when used together have the ability to disarm an opponent. Draco was most likely not expecting a combination of simple spells and was most likely expecting that his disarming spell would be met by another one. His failure to prepare for spells that usually wouldn't be used in combat led him to defeat. Both students did very well. Let's give them some applause."

The students in the room began to clap slowly as Clarissa brought Draco's wand back to him. Blake didn't waste very much time in heading back to his corner to stand and wait patiently for the rest of the class to begin. Harry watched Blake go back to the corner and lean against the wall. It was like he had known that this was coming and had made battle plans in his head long before it had ever started. The last things that would have gone through Harry's mind when he was in the middle of a battle would have been charms as simple and apparently useless for combat as Lumos. He sighed. It didn't matter. Draco had been publicly humiliated and that was always something to enjoy.

Ron smiled softly as he looked over at Harry and Hermione, "You know, if he keeps that up, I think we might have to have another party."

☼

Ron slowly walked up through the stands of the Quidditch field. He looked out at the younger students hoping to fill the vacant positions. He looked down at his clipboard. First was a few of the younger students trying out for positions as chasers Ginny was one of them, and after seeing how well she had preformed last year when she filled in as seeker for Harry, she was a write in. Ron sighed as he leaned back on one of the benches and watched as the new tryouts flew around, passing the quaffle to each other. This was showing the skill in passing and catching. Ron took a few notes of the more notable students. It wasn't even like he wanted to job of team captain, but he had been told by McGonagall that he got the position. It wasn't like he was going to turn it down then.

"How am I supposed to do this? This doesn't say anything really. I need to put them up against someone so that I can show them what they'll be up against…I can't tell if they are going to freak out when someone comes at them or not based on this…" He sighed softly, "I might as well just be picking at random…" He watched as one of the students tried to get fancy and dropped the quaffle, "Well, that eliminates one…"

He was slowly dividing the papers into piles. One was of students that, while showing potential, weren't what he was looking for. Another was of all the students that he wasn't sure of. The last one had Ginny in it, and was where people would go if they were going to get in. Ginny was probably their best bet for one of the Chasers. She was fast, and she was in a state of controlled recklessness while she was playing. She was perfect to dive right into a game and not worry if she got hit.

He looked through the other lists of positions that were going to be filled. No one could compare to Harry when it came to seeker. No one was going to be taking his keeper position away from Ron. That meant that there were two possible positions open for Beaters. He sighed softly and looked at people applying for the position and then stopped. He stared at the name of the top page and read it out loud, very softly.

"Blake Allendale…" He spoke softly, "A boy of many talents that one is." He smiled, "This is perfect…with those two beaters from last year gone and the extra chaser here who isn't a complete clutz, we have a team…now I just need to find out if Blake is any good." He stood up, "Alright, Chaser hopefuls, clear the field and come here. I've got some talking I'd like to do with you. Harry I hate to ask you to do this, but I need you to fly around for our beater hopeful as a target, okay?"

Harry nodded. He was standing in the middle of the field now and took flight on his broom. Blake wandered out to the middle of the field and took to flight on his broom, his beater's bat in hand. Harry blinked as he looked down at Blake who was going a little bit of warm up while Ron talked to the chasers about what was going on there. Harry slowed down a little to be flying next to Blake.

"So, you're going to be our next beater?" Harry asked as he looked Blake over.

Blake smirked as he looked over at Harry, "That depends if our boy Ron decides that I'm any good or not. I'm sorry in advance if I do any damage with these bludgers though. I'm sure you understand that I kind of have to go all out, right? No hard feelings, eh?"

Harry smiled, "You'll do your best to hit me, and I'll do my best not to get hit. Sounds fair." He then bolted forward with a good deal of speed.

Ron had just finished explaining how he wasn't ready to be final in any of his decision making and that they would all just have to wait for him to tell them if they had gotten in. He watched as Harry zoomed off and hovered at one end of the arena, and Blake hovered lower to the ground at the other end. He opened the chest with the bludgers and threw one of them into the air. He was then amazed at how fast everyone started moving.

Blake was instantly at the bludger, dealing a hard blow to it and sending it in Harry's direction. Harry was quickly moving out of the way. Blake was chasing the bludger down to smash it again. It was all instantly put into action. You had to be watching constantly or you would miss what exactly was happening. Ron was baffled by how quickly everything was going. He didn't even need to watch the rest of this to know that Blake had enough skills that he was worth considering, and since he was the only one who actually wanted to be in the position, it made him part of the postion.

Blake was going up now and Harry was headed to the ground. Harry was going the right thing. He was trying to keep his distance. That wouldn't have been the way that seeker would have moved in an actual game, but it didn't matter. Beaters moved wherever they needed to in order to get the right angel. Blake was doing his part. And then it happened. Blake shot down, his bat pushing the bludger down in front of him. He was flying right at Harry. Harry looked up and thought about swerving. It wasn't going to matter. He hadn't seen a strategy like this before. He had no idea how to react.

Blake stopped just before he smashed into Harry and then just before the bludger would have smashed into the seeker knocked the bludger in another direction, "Heh, sorry, Ron. I would have hit him with it, but we can't have me breaking our star seeker's face, now can we?"

The rest of the team was completely silent, with the exception of Ron, who spoke four words, "That…was bloody brilliant!"

((AN: Sorry that this took so long to do. And to any of you hardcore Draco fans, you can't make me like him or stop having people hit him in my story, especially when it is Blake that is doing it. Why do you think I had him sign up to be beater? Next chapter is going to focus on Hermione again. There wasn't enough of her in this chapter, and there was no way that I could justify there being more of her. For all of my fellow Hermione fans, "Yay! Another chapter focusing on Hermione next!" Also for anyone reading this, I'd like to know your opinion on Clarissa.))


	10. Restless Slumber

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters/ideas that are represented within the pages of any of those books. I also do not make any personal monetary gains from the production of this or any other chapter in this particular fanfiction. I am poor. Please don't sue me.

Restless Slumber

"Hey, Hermione. You know what? I think I should take you out on the most amazing date and blow your mind by saying all of the right things." A voice spoke from behind Hermione.

She smiled softly to here the voice. That was just what she had always wanted to hear, "Oh, Harry. I'd love to!"

"Harry? I'm not Harry…but I guess I'll just have to step out of the way and let you two be together…that would be the right thing to do…" Ron's voice came from the shadows.

Hermione spun around and looked into the darkness trying to find who was saying all of this to her, "Ron? Is that you? This had better not be some kind of joke."

"Pah. Comparing me to that Weasley boy? Now that is a joke. You know it's me, deep in your heart mudblood. No one really wants you." It was Draco's voice this time.

She clenched her fists tightly, "Malfoy! Why won't you leave me alone!" She screamed.

"That Malfoy guy is a joke if you ask me. Doesn't know what he is doing in anything. A total twerp." Hermione was now hearing Blake's voice. This was so very confusing.

"What is happening? Blake doesn't even know me. This doesn't make any sense…" Hermione fell to her knees and began to cry softly.

"Oh, it makesss perfect sensssse, little girl. You are the bait for my trap." Hermione's blood froze in their very veins. It was Voldemort. What was going on? She opened her eyes to see the dark room, illuminated only by dark red light. The silhouette of the dark lord stood before her, "Well, you would have been the bait, but it seems that the Potter boy has no interest in you. I suppose I'll have to get rid of you." He raised his wand and pointed it at the girl.

"Get away from her you monster!" It was the commanding voice again. Hermione just couldn't place it to anyone, or the silhouette. It could have been anyone. She couldn't really tell through the tears and sniffles that she was still producing.

"What is it that you are going to do to me if I don't leave this girl alone? Why does she matter to you?" The scene had changed slightly, but it was basically just playing over again in front of her eyes.

The commanding figure standing in the doorway raised a hand, possibly with a wand in it, "If you do anything to harm that girl, I will kill you where you stand. What she means to me is none of your business. Step away from the girl now, or the last thing you will hear will be an unforgivable curse."

Voldemort laughed, this had changed too. There was more of a laugh to it this time, "You think that your puny powers can conjure up something that can hurt me? I am the great Voldemort!"

It was coming. It wouldn't take long now before Voldemort used his curse and killed whoever it was. There was nothing that Hermione could do. Her lungs burned, and her throat felt tight. She wasn't going to be able to even scream to warn her saviour. She was doomed to sit there and watch as Voldemort used the unforgivable curse on them again. Just like before, there was nothing she could do to stop it. Death was inescapable.

"If you're so great, then why have you stooped so low as to take hostages, and why is it that you haven't just killed the girl yet? You are afraid of me and what I might be able to do. You are afraid of what I might be able to cast to cause you a great deal of pain and suffering before you die." The person who had come to save her laughed softly.

Voldemort screamed as he pointed his wand at Hermione's would be saviour, "I fear nothing! Avada Kedavra!"

There was a flash of unearthly green light and that was it. Hermione knew that was it. She was going to be the next target for Voldemort. There was no doubt about it. She was going to die, just like the person who had come to save her. She wasn't necessary any more. He had even said that. It was all going to be over in a matter of moments, she just didn't know how long it was going to take for everyone else to realize that her life was over. Would anyone even care if she stopped living? Would anyone know that she had died at the hands of Voldemort? It didn't matter. She was a gonner.

☼

Hermione opened her eyes, crying and gasping desperately for breath. Her body was damp from sweat, and her eyes itched from tears. What kind of twisted nightmare had that been? It was just like the one that she had before, only this time started out far more twisted. What did any of it mean? It didn't make any sense at all.

She continued to cry silently as she looked down at the blankets that covered her. Morning light drifted in through a part in the curtains at the side of the room. At least that was a relief. This time she hadn't lost too much sleep because she couldn't get back to sleep. She'd probably even be able to stay up through all of her classes, not that staying up through all of her classes had ever been a challenge with all of the interesting things that the learned each and every day.

She wiped away a few of her tears. This was just a bad dream, and all she had to do was forget it. Dreams didn't have any power in the real world. It was just a dream and she hadn't seen anything that had happened, or was ever going to happen. She just had to relax and get a hold of herself. It wouldn't do for her to have eyes that were red and puffy from crying if she was going to spend any time around Harry. She wanted to impress him, not disgust him with red, puffy, crying eyes.

"Well…time to get up and face a new day I suppose." She whispered softly to herself so that she wouldn't wake anyone else.

She quickly set to work gathering her bath supplies and the set of clothes that she would be wearing that day. She'd just go have a bath and everything would just wash away, including those memories of that odd and frightening nightmare. There was no point in not being clean because of a nightmare, and it wasn't like taking a bath wasn't going to help her. After the cold sweat that she had woken up in she needed a nice long bath.

"Mmmm…I'll go get my bath and then maybe get myself a nice big breakfast…get ready for a long day of learning…" She smiled softly to herself, the memories of the dream quickly slipping away and vanishing from her mind. Everything was going to be perfectly mundane and normal…well at least as normal as things ever were at Hogwarts.

☼

Blake and Ron were playing a game of wizard chess in the common room. Ron was losing miserably, but that was because his pieces were a bit flakey and kept making moves that he hadn't told them to make. Blake continued to play, not really having to pay much attention to what it was that he was doing since Ron's pieces seemed to have some sort of death wish.

Right now it was Blake's move, and while it was clear for anyone to see that he could make one move, take the queen and put Ron in check, all with a knight, he was thinking about it. He appeared to have a lot more on his mind than just the chess game. Harry had been watching and taking notice of how Blake always seemed to be over thinking every move that he made, like he wasn't thinking about it at all, and had some sort of secret thought that he was contemplating.

Blake made the move, "Check."

Hermione came out of the girls' dorm carrying her bathing things and the clothes that she would be wearing. She had her school robe wrapped around her and was wearing her usual pyjamas underneath that. She paid little attention to what was going on in the common room and just wandered out so that she could go take her bath, leaving the room a little bit more silent than it would have been.

Ron stared at his pieces, "I think that maybe…"

A knight jumped up from it's spot, "That's the problem with you. Too much thought! Charge!" Ron's knight took the knight that Blake had just used to claim the queen.

Blake moved a lot faster than he had been through the rest of the game, bringing his queen up and putting Ron in checkmate, "Well. That was fun." He smiled softly, "So, what do you guys think of the Hermione girl?"

Ron stopped in the middle of collecting his pieces waiting to see what Harry would say. This would finally give him his answer about what it was that Harry felt towards her. Maybe he wouldn't have any romantic feelings for her and that would mean that he could make his move and finally tell Hermione, straight out, how he felt for her. It wouldn't matter that she liked Harry if he didn't return the feeling. It wouldn't matter at all.

Harry blinked as he looked at the two silent boys who were obviously waiting for him to make some sort of response, "Uh…well, she's smart. Probably the smartest Gryffindor…well probably the smartest student at Hogwarts now that I mention it. She's really nice…um…she's generous…why are you two staring at me like that?"

Blake smiled and shook his head as he looked back at the chess board, "Bah, puppy love."

Harry raised his hands, his cheeks blushing deeply, "Hold on! I never-"

"You didn't need to say anything, Harry boy. You are so completely and totally head over heels for that girl. Bah, I don't blame you." Blake smirked.

Ron looked up at Blake almost shocked, "You mean?"

Blake smiled up at Ron, "Hey, Ron. Fancy another game?" The pieces set themselves up on the board again, "I'll make it quick, then we can go get some breakfast."

Ron stared at Blake, "Uh…sure, I guess..."

Blake grinned from ear to ear, "Good. Lets get started on this!"

((AN: Sorry that this didn't come in as fast as the rest of them. I kinda got addicted to an old computer game…X-com. Which is an amazing game. If only my version wasn't buggered up…I adjusted the dream a bit cause I didn't want anyone to get bored reading the same thing that they read in whatever chapter it was that I had the dream last time.))


	11. What Do I Feel?

Disclaimer: As always, I don't own Harry Potter, the characters therein, or the ideas represented in any of the Harry Potter series. I make absolutely zero profit from this project, and am only attempting this for my personal enjoyment of creative writing. I am poor. Please don't sue me.

What Do I Feel?

Harry thought about it for the rest of the month. He had no idea what it was that he actually felt. He had been forcing himself not to feel anything for so long that now he wasn't sure what it was that he was feeling. In the Dursley household he wasn't actually able to feel anything other that the torment of being in that house. Sure it hadn't been very exciting and he had always felt like he was being punished for something, but he at least knew what it was that he was feeling when he was there. There were only so many feelings that he could experience in that sort of atmosphere.

When he finally got away he hadn't been allowed to feel much of any emotion except for that short period of time at the start. The idea of Voldemort and Snape made him wonder if the Dursleys were all that bad. At least the Dursleys seemed to have a reason to hat him when people like Snape had no reason at all. Voldemort was just a strange villain that didn't really make much of any sense. He was just him and there was no point in making sense of that.

That was where the list of deaths started, and Harry had crawled back into the defense of that little crawlspace again. The crawlspace was safe, no one would hurt him there and nothing could ever get to him until he was ready to face it. Cedric had died, and he had crawled right into the crawlspace that he had built in his psyche. He wasn't going to allow himself to be beaten just because Voldemort showed himself to be an even bigger bully then they had thought. He wasn't going to let himself become a basket case over a death that wasn't his fault. He wouldn't let himself sink into depression because of it.

Of course he had let himself fall into depression, he had blamed himself, and he had let himself be beaten as a result of it. It had been his fault. If he had just decided to take the stupid cup then it never would have happened. He could have just reached up there and said, 'I win' and then it would have been him that had been taken instead. Cedric would have still been alive and everyone would have been so much happier. Even if it had been a tradeoff where Harry had lost his life instead of Cedric, it would have been a happy ending for everyone.

He had managed not to beat himself up too much about it and keep going…and then it happened. Sirius died right in front of him. Again he had been in a position where he could have done any number of things to save him, but instead, he had stood there and watched as his godfather had been killed right before his eyes. A pain that made everything that he had ever felt from the Dursleys rushed back to him, and he had been left with nothing but the Dursleys to go back to. He had sealed himself in that little mental crawlspace again where no one could see him and no one could hurt him. He had become apathetic to the world around him, and it all seemed to be perfectly within fairness to him.

He had been sealed in that little crawlspace for so long now that he had forgotten what it was to feel. He had forgotten how it felt to care what happened around him, or what he could do now to stop it from happening again. He had managed to stop himself from caring about anything and now he didn't know if he could open himself up again to find out what he felt. To keep himself numb to emotion he had to keep going without knowing how he felt for Hermione, or if anything that Blake had said was true. He had to keep himself cut off, or he would realize how alone he truly was without Sirius. He needed to keep himself cut off or he would realize that he didn't have a family any more.

He'd just have to focus a little bit more on Quidditch or something. Maybe fill his life with studying and practice, that way he wouldn't have time to feel anything. Everything would be perfect that way and no one would know hoe much he hurt. He'd surround himself with things to do that way no one would ever be able to reach him and tell him how much he was hurting. He'd keep himself away from the emotions by refusing to accept them as existing. He wouldn't feel and everything would be fine.

The words of Blake ran through his head, 'So what do you think about that Hermione girl?'

Harry started running, "I don't feel anything. I won't let myself feel anything." He pushed open a door and ran out into the grounds of the school, "I won't let anyone get close to me because if they get close they will just die. I won't let anyone die because of me anymore!"

He looked down at the lake and stared at it for a moment. When he had been running he had no real direction set in his head, yet he had ended up here. He remembered receiving the letter that said that something was wrong with the carriages that were pulled by the thestrals. Apparently someone has made a complaint about the dangers of thestrals or something and in the end, the argument had carried into the new year so the school had opted not to use them.

There wasn't really anything dangerous at all about the thestrals. They were just big gentle beasts. They were like Hagrid. Once you spent some time with them they weren't so frightening. Then again, there were always the arguments that they shouldn't have a giant teaching at an establishment like Hogwarts. It never got anywhere with people like Dumbledore around, but it was still an argument that got made, because there were always people with some complaint.

Harry knew there was nothing wrong with Hagrid teaching, or the thestrals being used as transport. Hagrid was the gentlest person that he had ever met. The thestrals hadn't attacked anyone that he knew of. He had even ridden on one. Of course in the end that had resulted in him being in a dangerous situation, but that couldn't be blamed on the thestral. It wasn't its fault that he had gone off to fight with the dark lord Voldemort. He would have found another way if the thestrals hadn't been there.

He sighed. It was true. Every single outcome there had him watching as his godfather was killed. He would have found some way to rush off into battle, and he would have seen Sirius get killed. It wasn't anyone's fault that he saw that other than himself, and now it haunted all of his dreams. How was he supposed to open up to the people around him with things like tat haunting him? How was he supposed to move on when he felt like he could just fall apart with any movement?

How had all of this come up anyway? Blake had just gone on a tangent and expected him to say something. That was it. He was sure of it now. Blake was just trying to get him to admit that he had some sort of feelings for their resident bookworm, Hermione. He wasn't sure why, but that appeared to be what motivated Blake. Well, it didn't really matter. Hermione was always going to be Hermione, and she was always just going to be a friend. Harry knew that. Hermione didn't want to be anything more than a friend, so it didn't even matter. Her and Ron made a much better couple anyway. He'd just have to sit back and let her choose Ron, even if he did like her, which he wasn't saying that he did. He still had that whole Cho thing to deal with.

☼

Ron stared at the floor as he wandered down the halls. It was like Blake knew how he felt about Hermione and was just trying to play with his head or something. It was like everyone was secretly laughing at him, only not so secretly that he didn't know. This whole thing felt like he had just walked into potions class without any pants on, and then Snape singled him out. He didn't necessarily mind the idea of wandering around with no pants on in front of Hermione- He stopped and put both of his hands in front of his mouth. He wasn't thinking that. He wasn't fantasizing about her now…was he? No, this had to be his mind dealing with all of the stress of Harry wandering around acting all weird.

This was Blake's fault! He had brought the whole Hermione thing to Harry's attention. It was Blake's fault that Harry was realizing just how much he needed Hermione in his life, and just how much she wanted him in hers. It was all Blake's fault and it was all completely unfair! This wasn't how things were supposed to go! This wasn't what Ron had wanted at all!

But…it was, wasn't it? He had said to himself that he was just going to stand back and let Hermione and Harry get together. Blake was just speeding things up a little, so why was all of this anger coming up? Blake had done what needed to be done for Ron to do what he had promised to do. Why was he so upset about it now? It didn't make any sense!

Of course he wanted Hermione to be with him, but that contradicted the desire for Harry and Hermione to make their perfect couple. He knew that he wanted that, and everyone else wanted that too! There was no point in fighting something like Hermione's wish to be with Harry. There wasn't any point in standing between the two of them, because it would just end with him being crushed…not that he minded the idea of being crushed against much of anything by Hermione…

"Ugh…I've got to stop thinking about this…" Ron shook his head to try and clear the mental image from his mind.

That was the sort of thing that Fred and George would have suggested just to see him blush. They were always up to those sort of tricks. He wondered briefly if they were still up to those sort of tricks, then remembered that they were running a joke store. Of course they were still pulling tricks out of their butts…or pulling something out of their butts, which would provide a trick. It didn't matter, it was obvious that they were still up to their usual mischief.

Hermione had never been a big fan of their tricks, but now it didn't matter since they weren't here. He should have been able to just walk up to Hermione with nothing like the twins that she could hold against him and say, "Hey doll, what are you up to?" and that would be that.

"Ron, that is the weakest pickup that I have ever heard. I mean it might work on someone, but I extremely doubt it. You'd be better off just sitting there and waiting for whoever you are chasing to talk to you." It was Blake.

Well this could have been so much worse. It took Ron a moment before he could think of a way and then they all started showing up. It would have been worse if it had been Draco instead of Blake. It would have been even worse than that if it had been Hermione. Well, that didn't matter. He had just been thinking out loud and now he had someone to answer to.

He chuckled weakly as he turned to face the scarlet haired boy, "Heh…did I say that out loud?"

"Would you believe that you did?" Blake grinned, "So who is the lucky lady who'll be getting some Weasley charm?"

Ron stopped. This was not good. Talking to Blake about Hermione was bad in so many ways. Hermione was Harry's even if he didn't know it yet. Talking to Blake about it would just be inviting a few too many people to listen to the secret. It'd be better if he just managed to come up with another story. Of course another story wasn't really introducing itself very quickly.

"Hey, uh, Blake…" Ron looked at him a little blush creeping into his cheeks, "I was wondering if you wanted to play some wizard chess."

Blake smiled softly as he nodded to Ron, "Alright…but when I've beaten you, you'd better have a better way to dodge the question than that, okay?

((AN: Wow…that took a while to get rolling. And now, because I've broken through that little spat of Writer's Block, I've got a flood of ideas coming on. Bah, oh well. I've also got a copy of Pirates! to go back to playing.))


	12. Hidden Feelings

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the characters of the Harry Potter books, or the ideas that are represented in any of the books of the Harry Potter series. I make absolutely no profit from this writing, or any other writing in this story. I am poor. Please don't sue me.

Hidden Feelings

The trip to Hogsmeade came a whole lot faster than anyone had been expecting. A thin layer of snow had fallen and now covered the landscape giving everything an unearthly look to it, like it was from a black and white film. It was unearthly...not that Hogsmeade needed any help looking unearthly when you stopped to look a little closer than you had been.

It wasn't anything new to Ron. He had spent his entire life thinking that things from the world that Hermione came from were strange and unusual. Hogsmeade was about as close to normal as things got for him, with the exception of Hogwarts, which was just like a normal school to him. It was just like walking down any other street where they happened to be selling things.

In that sense, Hermione had to agree with him partially. This place wasn't all that different from Diagon Alley. Of course Diagon Alley was about as different as you could get from everywhere else that Hermione had ever been. It was like some sort of dream that a toddler might have one day. It was completely out of the ordinary to everything that Hermione once knew. It was normal now, but there was still that part of her that said it wasn't.

It didn't really matter all that much. It just made the whole atmosphere that much more special for when she'd finally reveal her true feelings to Harry. He was finally going to know that she loved him and had loved him since…well for as long as she could remember. She was going to tell him, and everything was going to be fine and dandy, just like it was supposed to be in all of those trashy stories that she read where the couple fell madly in love with each other…and then other things happened.

Hermione blushed at the thought of those 'other things' happening with her and Harry. That was something that she wasn't going to be able to get out of her head for a nice long time now. She silently cursed herself for destroying her studies like that, but now that the image was there, it wasn't like there was anything she could do about it. It was also going to do terrible things to her sleep time…not that she minded that all that much.

She shook her head to clear her mind. That wasn't the sort of thing that she should have been thinking when she was supposed to be talking to the boy of her dreams, no matter what kind of dreams they were, as soon as she found him again. He had run off when they had arrived in Hogsmeade saying something about needing to check something out and that they shouldn't wait up for him. Ron hadn't said much about it and had just wandered around looking in store windows with his hands stuffed into the pockets of the heavy school robes that he wore.

He was always sticking close to her. She had thought it was nice at first, but it had started getting a bit agitating a while ago, when she realize that she wasn't going to have any alone time with Harry…not that Ron would be a problem if she didn't find Harry. He could have been anywhere by now, and finding him was going to take far too much time, since they would probably end up just following him if they were looking for him. That was the way things always turned out when anyone was looking for anyone else. They ended up tracing the footprints of the person they were looking for and never quite catching up.

In truth that was probably irritating Hermione far more than the fact that Ron was following her. Draco always managed to find who he was looking for when he was looking for them, and yet every time that she needed to find someone to tell them something important, like reveal her most secret feelings to them, she couldn't find them to save her life. It was the most irritating thing in the world to know that Harry was out there and that she couldn't find him and probably wasn't going to no matter how hard it was the she tried. It was a wonder that she was still sane.

"So, Hermione. Do you think we should go check up on Fred and George? See their new joke shop?" Ron had started wandering over to Hermione's side.

It was killing him inside to know that he was never going to be able to kiss those lips of Hermione's or know the feeling of her love. It was killing him every second that he was with her to know that she was beyond his reach and would never come into his circle. It hurt even more to know that Harry hadn't even done anything and he had won her affections. It wasn't fair! Harry hadn't done anything, yet Hermione would bend over backwards for his attention, and yet here was poor little Ron, who would do anything for some of Hermione's attention and she wouldn't ever even notice. He could stand in front of her and scream into her face that he loved her and she would just smile and say 'that's nice' in her little happy voice and then go back to thinking about how she was going to win Harry.

What was it that attracted Hermione's attention to Harry and away from him? What was it that Harry had that he didn't? Well, there were a lot of things that Harry had which he didn't, but which one of them was the one that Hermione wanted? Surely it couldn't be that hard for him to get. He would even stand in front of stupid Voldemort and stick his tongue out when he cast his stupid curse, then get a stupid scar if it would win Hermione. Even if it killed him, he would do it. He just wanted her to turn to him and smile and say that she knew how he felt and felt the same way. Just once to know that the girl that he had fallen in love with felt even a spark of emotion towards him that went beyond friend.

At the moment he would even settle for friend since it seemed that Hermione was ignoring him again. She had been doing a lot of that recently. Everyone had been ignoring him a whole lot more than they had been before. He wondered if anyone noticed or not. Blake was seeming to be the only person who actually listened to him every time he was talking…he even listened to the hidden meanings in the way he said what he was saying. He was sure that he had to have left more hints for Hermione to find than there were stars in the sky, and the only people who never showed any signs of picking them up where Harry and Hermione. Blake hadn't even spent that much time with him and he had picked up on the stupid hints. It was sad that the people he thought were his best friends couldn't pick up on something so obvious, but a complete stranger could.

It was even worse that Hermione and Harry kept blanking out and ignoring him right out. Even Draco Malfoy didn't ignore him. Sure that wasn't the kind of attention that he ever wanted, but at least it was something. He could tell Draco to go stuff himself and Draco would come up with a response. He could tell Harry or Hermione that he was going to go jump off of a bridge and neither of them would even realize that he was talking. He sighed softly. Maybe if he said it and then went somewhere to go do it they would start listening to him again rather than playing this odd game of proverbial footsie with each other.

Well, it wasn't like it mattered if Hermione had listened to him or not. They were headed in the general direction of Fred and George's joke store anyway. They would get there eventually, and then Fred and George would call him 'ickle-Ronnikins' and poke fun at him, and everything would be back to normal.

He wondered if perhaps that was all he was really looking for. Everything had changed drastically since the end of the last year. He knew for a fact that people didn't like change, so perhaps this whole Hermione thing was just him trying to make things all go back to they way that they had been…then again, that didn't explain why he had felt this way about Hermione before everything had gone down with Sirius dying and all. It was a partial answer to a very complex question that he didn't quite understand yet.

He looked into another store window. There was nothing here that would buy him the love of Hermione either. Not that he would have been able to afford it if it was in there, it was just the fact that it wasn't. Nothing had what it was that he was looking for. He sighed softly as he continued to look at his reflection. Maybe he was just really ugly, and that was why Hermione didn't want him. He could believe that. He wasn't much to look at. Draco said so, and so did a whole lot of other people…he just hadn't quite accepted it as a possibility until now.

Maybe it was the money that he lacked and that Harry had that made Harry such a better choice for her. After all, Harry would have been able to wander through here and bought anything that Hermione ever stopped to look at. He had thought it was cool when he had first found out, but now that it played to his disadvantage, it wasn't such a good thing. It was like everything else about Harry that had made him such an amazing person and now made him that much better than Ron. He had started to want to hate Harry. He wanted to hate everything about Harry, but he couldn't.

He wanted to join up with Malfoy of all people and throw insults, and small hard objects at Harry, but that wouldn't have helped him, and joining with Malfoy was just stupid. He wanted to be like Harry sometimes, to be great, to be put on a pedestal and be allowed to say, 'I am so great!' and have everyone believe it. He wanted the affections of Hermione. He wanted to trade places with Harry for just one day, just to have everything that it was that he was lacking. Hermione's love, courage, power, money, everything.

He knew it wasn't really what he wanted, but it would have been so much better than what he had. What he really wanted was for Hermione to stop and talk to him. What he really wanted was for Hermione to love him for who he really was. He wanted someone to notice him for doing what it was that he did and then receive a kind word, or a pat on the back. He wanted to know what it was to be like Harry without actually being Harry. That was what he wanted, but he was always going to be overshadowed by the great boy who lived. There was no space in the papers for a Weasley boy who was a little bit shy and too nice for his own good except in the obituaries.

It wasn't fair, and he knew it wasn't. He was going to spend his entire life knowing how it wasn't fair, and how to get the one thing that you wanted more than anything else you had to give up something even better that you didn't realize you had. Harry had to lose his parents to become the great wizard that he was, and Ron…well, Ron didn't stand a chance at ever getting what it was that he really wanted. He was always going to be good ol' ickle-Ronnikins, younger brother to the Weasley twins...He was always just going to be a nameless boy that no one noticed because they were too busy shielding their eyes from the radiance that was Harry Potter.

Ron placed his hand against the cold glass of the window, staring at his reflection. He wasn't sure that he was even a real person anymore. Everything about him seemed so hallow and so boring. Maybe he was just here to provide some interesting conversation in the great adventure of Harry Potter. Maybe his great purpose in the universe was to get blown away by Voldemort in some final battle. That would just fit right in there. He could see the story. It wouldn't even be the front page. It would just be crammed in there right next to a new recipe for dumplings, 'Weasley boy killed by Voldemort'. He doubted anyone would even cry. It wasn't like there wasn't enough of the Weasley family out there. What would one less mean?

Ron sighed softly ad he pulled his hand away from the glass softly, "I suppose I really am just some random kid with no meaning in life…"

Hermione continued walking slowly, "Oh, I'm sorry, Ron. Did you say something?"

"Nothing worth repeating, Hermione…" He stuffed his hand back into his pocket and slowly took back to walking slightly behind her, "…nothing worth you listening too…"

((AN: Okay, next chapter I'm jumping forward by a bit. For the timeline purposes it is somewhere in October okay? I know we were all looking for some Fred and George, but I really, really like them, and because I really, really like them, I would never be completely satisfied with anything that I had them saying or doing, so I'm not going to put myself through that type of punishment.))


	13. Tears and Dance Steps

Disclaimer: I do not own the ideas of, the characters of, or the title of Harry Potter. That is to say, that any characters appearing in any of the Harry Potter novels are not owned by me, as with any ideas that are expressed in any of the Harry Potter novels also not belonging to me. I also make absolutely no profit from this writing, in any way, the characters (with the exception of Blake and Clarissa) are in no way my original thought. I am poor. Please do not sue me.

Tears and Dance Steps

The Halloween feast made the great hall a loud place, with almost constant chatter between students about the ball that would be fallowing the feast. Of course a Halloween ball wasn't all the unusual. They needed something to keep the morale up with snow outside, making that a less enjoyable place for some students to be. Being cramped up, even in a big old castle like Hogwarts, wasn't usually good for students unless they had something to take their minds off of it. They often very quickly forgot about their studies and became interested in other things that could take their minds off of it.

Of course they had leaked the information about a week before when they had sent all of the students off to Hogsmeade, but seeing some of the decorations up that morning was still enough to make some of the students giddy with joy. One of those students was Hermione Granger. She had some big plans for this ball. She was going to march up to Harry and confess her feelings for him, and then ask him to dance with her. It was going to be romantic, and she had been playing the scene out in her mind over and over all morning. She let herself slip into a daydream state and visualize all of it again.

"Oh, Harry! I love you so much! Won't you dance with me?" She'd say.

Then he would smile and get up, taking her hand, "Hermione, I'm so glad that you finally asked. You see, I feel the same way. I've always felt that way for you. It would be an honor."

And then she had some vague image of them dancing together to the most beautiful love song. Then he'd escort her to the girl's dorm later, which seemed silly since it was all in the Gryffindor common room, but she didn't care because it was romantic. Then they'd kiss each other goodnight, and it would be such and amazing kiss that she'd have dreams about it all night, and then she'd wake up and everything would be flowery and new, and then…

"Well, if it isn't miss Granger, and her Gryffindor friends." It was the voice of Malfoy that cruelly tore Hermione out of her daydream and dropped her down harshly into the real world again.

Ron glared up at Draco, "Get stuffed Malfoy! I know this might be a hard realization for you to make, but you do find Gryffindors at the Gryffindor table."

"Oh really, Weasley? I wonder how you came across that piece of information. You certainly didn't buy it." Draco growled.

Harry continued eating slowly. He didn't like Malfoy, but he didn't want to get into a confrontation with him if he didn't need to. He had been told over and over again just to ignore Draco Malfoy, so now he was going to do just that. He wasn't even going to blink when Draco started insulting him. He was just going to continue eating and focus only on how good the food tasted.

"So, I suppose Granger doesn't have a date…unless she is dating you, Weasley." Draco looked up to see Ron blushing furiously, "I thought not. That's just typical of her, she just doesn't have the looks to-"

Blake slowly looked up at Draco, "Why don't you scat?" He smiled softly, "Unless you were over here to offer to be Hermione's date."

Draco's face contorted, "Me? Date that?"

Blake shrugged, "I just think it would have been funny to see her turn you down. I'll bet a lot of girls do."

Draco growled at Blake, "Why don't you keep making comments like that and we'll see what happens?"

Blake laughed softly and shook his head, "Oh no. Look out. He's going to have a tantrum and stomp off to his table. He might even cry." Draco pulled back a punch and threw his fist forward at Blake, who caught the punch in his palm expertly. Blake slowly stood up holding Draco's fist in his hand tightly, "Look. I hit you once, and really I didn't suffer that much for it. I'm open to pressing my luck." He let go of Draco's hand and watched as Draco stormed off to the Slytherin table.

Blake sighed and slowly sat down at his spot, everyone at the table with the exception of Harry looking right at him. It took Blake a moment to realize that he had all of this attention but when he did realize he just smiled softly and waved to everyone, "Try the corn. It's great." Harry tried desperately not to choke on what he was eating from laughing so hard.

☼

The ball was slow with eerily danceable music. The candles floated and glowed orange as the music floated over the great hall where they had been having their feast only about an hour earlier. Students danced slowly, some of them still entering the ball. Most of them wore something that looked more fashionable than what they would normally wear around the school. The students that weren't dancing were sitting around round tables, some drinking butterbeer, some just talking about random wizard things, like Quidditch.

No one was worried about classes, or that sort of school thing. No one really cared during a ball, because all of the teachers would know why you didn't do your homework, or why you seemed a little bit sleepy. That was the way with balls. No one ever worried and nothing bad ever happened to anyone the day after. There was nothing to even really worry about, except how you were dancing, and maybe how you looked.

Hermione was basically shaking with worry. She was so absolutely terrified, worried, and nervous that she looked completely normal. She had stopped to think about it for a moment and it made sense. She the being petrified with fear and shaking with nervousness had just countered each other out. Her body was most likely just so confused that it had just given up trying to express her feelings in the physical world and was just settling for the normal Hermione.

There wasn't anything for her to worry about. Harry was going to say that he felt the same way and then they were going to dance through the entire ball together. That was how she had envisioned it, and that was the way that it was going to be. She was never wrong, and that goodnight kiss had better be at the end, or she was going to wonder where the bloody hell it was! She had planned all of this perfectly and there was nothing that could possibly go wrong. She knew that she looked stunning and that everything about her was going to be absolutely perfect, and she knew that Harry was going to look dashing and absolutely perfect, and she knew that he was bloody well going to dance with her after he said that he loved her too.

She slowly started walking again. She knew what she was going to say. She knew what he was going to say. She knew what they were going to be doing for the rest of the night. She knew everything, and what she knew was law! Hermione Granger was never wrong about anything. She knew this, and so did everyone else. This was not a night for her to start being wrong. She just wouldn't stand for being wrong tonight! This was her night! Her and Harry's night and once she got everything started she was going to enjoy it! She just needed to find him first.

And just when she was thinking that, he was there. He was wearing a button up, red shirt, a pair of simple blue jeans, his school robes, and those glasses that he always wore. She had grown accustom to those glasses. She just couldn't imagine Harry without those glasses on his face, but it didn't matter, because she loved the glasses too. She loved everything about Harry, and when she admitted it to him, she was going to find out just how much he loved everything about her too. It needed to be like that, because that was what she knew it was going to be like. That was how she had planned it.

"Harry?" She spoke softly, stepping up to him.

Harry looked over to Hermione. She was wearing a nice blue dress. It was actually quite nice. He had only seen a few other girls who had gone all out and went with dresses rather than their usual clothes. It seemed a bit odd to have this girl right in front of him, all dressed up like Hermione was. He somehow knew however, that something incredibly bad was coming. He could sense it on the horizon, and while his scar didn't hurt, he was almost sure that it should have been stinging like it never had before.

Hermione smiled nervously, "Harry, I…I love you."

Harry stared at her. She had just said those three words. What was he supposed to do now? He knew that he should be reacting somehow to that, but he couldn't. He wasn't going to let emotions touch him, or it was going to overwhelm him. If he let someone like Hermione get close to him like she was trying to right now then he would lose her too. He would lose her just like he lose Sirius…He closed his eyes tightly. He didn't want to think about Sirius. Not here. He didn't want to hurt Hermione either. He slowly took a step back.

"Hermione…I…I don't..." He started. He didn't know what else to say so he just let the sentence hang in the air.

He didn't have his eyes open to see what her reaction was. He didn't want to see her begin to cry. He didn't want to see his best friend turn and run out of the dance while everyone around him turned and stared at him all shocked. He didn't want to know that he had been the one who had done that to Hermione. He didn't want to live knowing that he had broken someone's heart. He wanted to let everything inside of him swallow him up and then fall into utter darkness. Hermione would understand. She always understood. It might take her a while, but she'd understand why he couldn't be with her. Why Ron was such a better choice.

Hermione had started to cry, and she had turned and run out of the dance. It had all been a blur to her after he had sad 'I don't' It had all been completely meaningless. The dressing up, the panning, the practicing her dance steps, they had all been meaningless. She wasn't going to dazzle anyone. She wasn't going to dance with anyone. She wasn't going to kiss anyone good night. Instead, she was just going to sit her against this wall, and listen to the muffled music from the ball while she sobbed into her hands.

No one would see her. No one would care. She'd just drown herself in her tears and no one would even notice that she was gone. Harry didn't care. Who would care about her now? She had been turned down by the one person she had put all of her love into. She had wasted all of this effort and now she had nothing. She had less than nothing. She had given her heart to Harry, and he had broken it. Right in front of her, he had broken her heart and handed it back to her.

She felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. It didn't matter. It was probably just Ron, being his usual rock self. He was always there to cry to. Right now she didn't want him to be there. She didn't want anyone to be there. It was just an annoyance. Why wouldn't people just leave her alone? No instead Ron had to be Ron and try to save the day. She was broken, there was nothing left to save.

"Hey. Calm down. A pretty little thing like you shouldn't be crying." Blake's voice came through Hermione's tears.

It wasn't Ron. That almost made her want to cry more. Ron hadn't come to save her. No, she was left with this stranger to save her. That was the way of things. There was no way that this Blake guy understood what it was she was crying for. There was no way that he was going to be able to help her in any way. Nothing was going her way at all, so why would Ron show up and save her like she had hoped he would? He was supposed to be her rock, but no, he was too busy doing whatever it was he was doing.

Blake sighed and sat down in front of Hermione, "Why don't you tell me what went wrong? It is always better to tell someone."

Hermione sniffled softly and tried to wipe away the tears. Maybe talking to Blake would get rid of him. She really didn't want to talk to him about anything, so talking about this would probably get rid of him, "I thought I'd have a date, but he dumped me when I asked. Now I don't have a date or anything to do at this stupid dance!" She had clenched her fists near the end without realizing it.

Blake smirked softly, "So you're upset because this goof who can't see a beautiful girl in front of him turned you down? Bah, he can't know what he's doing."

Hermione closed her eyes tightly. No one was supposed to talk about Harry like that. He wasn't here to make a defense for himself Then again he had turned her down, so she wasn't sure that she was supposed to be making a defense for him. He had been a pretty hurtful person in the way that he had turned her down. And why had he turned her down? It wasn't like Cho Chang was ever going to take him back. He had put all of his hopes on one girl and when she had gone the other way he had been completely destroyed emotionally and unable to open up to anyone…sort of like how she had acted, and was acting now.

Blake slowly stood up and held his hand out for Hermione, "C'mon. We'll dance. It'd be an awful waste if you got all dressed up an flashy all for nothing."

Hermione looked up at him, completely shocked. This wasn't what she had expected. Blake was supposed to be a heartless insulter of people like Harry. He wasn't supposed to open up like this to her, and she wasn't supposed to be so invited by it. This was all completely wrong and she knew it in the very depth of her soul. This was in all ways wrong, but it felt like it would be so right to say yes. She wasn't sure what the consequences would have been. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Hermione Granger was unsure.

And then, before she knew it she had taken his hand and nodded softly, "That would be lovely."


	14. Better Off Said

Disclaimer: I'm sure I'll be the proud owner of something spectacular one day, but at the moment I only own mediocre things. Among the things that I don't own are the title, characters, and ideas or Harry Potter. I do this, and every other section of writing in this story for no profit, and only the joy of writing.

Better Off Said

"What in the bloody hell was that?" Ron stormed into the common room, "What do you think you are doing? What is it that makes you think you are so high and mighty that you can play with people's feelings like that?"

The dance was still going on in the castle, and no one else was in the Gryffindor common room other than Harry and Ron. Harry really didn't need this sort of thing from Ron at the moment. He would have been perfectly fine if Ron had just said nothing and they had gone on with their lives like nothing had happened. Of course Ron wasn't going to do that. He had feelings for Hermione that were probably more intense than Harry's ever had been for the girl. Now that he had broken her heart it was obvious that Ron was going to be shocked, confused, and angry. Everything that he was doing made perfect sense.

Ron's face had turned as red as his hair with anger, "WHAT WAS IT? Do you get off on hurting people?" He stormed up to Harry, "I guess it just wouldn't be a complete day for you if you didn't stomp on someone's feelings! I mean you are the only one who could possibly understand what it is to be hurt! You are the only one who has an understanding of what it is to give up something for the right reasons, or to have something you wanted so desperately stolen away from you right in front of you!"

The words bit harshly into Harry. He had never expected Ron to ever act like this to him. Ron was supposed to understand him, and it was most likely the fact that Ron did understand him that gave him the ability to use words to hurt him so deeply. Malfoy's insults and taunts were just child's play. Ron was using things that hit Harry in the points where it counted, and Ron usually wasn't one to throw insults around. Malfoy probably meant what he said as much as Ron, but Malfoy always did it and Harry had become numb to the sensation of being told off by the blonde little Slytherin boy.

"Listen you self-important, git! I've been sitting here while Hermione has been swooning over you and I have done nothing even though I've got more feeling for her in my pinky then you have ever had in your entire body!" Ron was shaking now, "I have been stepping aside for you for the entire time we have been together! I suppose I was confused and thought you were important or more of a person than I was! You're nothing! You aren't important! You aren't more of a person! You are just like that monster that marked you with that stupid scar on your forehead!"

Harry froze and his eyes suddenly glassed over, "…What did you say…?"

Ron continued to shake, possibly out of a mix of fear and anger, "You heard exactly what I said!" He was too far into this to pull out now. He knew he may have gone too far, but he was beyond caring about what Harry felt, or what Harry wanted. He had stopped caring as soon as Hermione had shed her first tear over him, "You aren't any more of a person than Voldemort! You're out of the same mold!"

Harry moved so quickly that Ron had absolutely no time to act. He was floored by Harry's punch. Harry was slightly winded from all of the effort and raw emotion that he had put into the punch. He hadn't remembered even thinking about punching Ron. It had just happened. Ron had been asking for it though. He was sure of that. Anything like what Ron had been saying was inviting him to let loose. He had to express himself or he would have exploded. Ron would survive, and he wouldn't say anything as stupid as what he had been saying again.

"I'm nothing like Voldemort!" Harry breathed as he straightened up slowly.

Ron spat blood to his side and wiped his mouth slowly, "You don't seem so different from where I stand! Neither of you care about the emotions or feelings of the people around you! You're just a big bully who happens to have a sob story! You think you can just talk or think your way out of anything, and then when someone threatens you like me you just resort to violence! Yeah, you're a great friend, but you've been proving that all night, haven't you?"

Harry growled, "Shut up! You don't know anything about how I feel!"

Ron pushed himself up onto his feet and threw his hand forward pointing at Harry violently, "What about you then? Gonna preach to me about feelings and knowing how everyone feels! How do you think Hermione feels? How do you think I feel? How do you think that punch felt?"

Harry couldn't take this. Not from Ron. Not now. He was going through too much to be able to just stop and listen as Ron openly attacked him with words. The only difference was that he had used his fists rather than words. There was nothing left to throw at Ron. Physical attacks weren't going to work on him. There were no words that could be used as weapons against Ron like the ones he was using against him. He wasn't ready for this. It was stupid! Ron was supposed to be his friend and yet here they were…

"You don't understand anything about this! You don't understand anything about what I am doing or why I am doing it! You know nothing! Get off your soapbox!" Harry turned and started to walk away from Ron.

Ron took a few shaky steps forward, still recovering from the shock and pain of being punched by Harry, who he had never expected to ever physically hit him, "You don't know that is going on! I have a perfect grip on the world around me and what everyone is doing! You have no idea how much courage it took for Hermione to finally come and talk to you about her emotions! You have no idea how much work she put into everything just so that you would notice! You didn't even have to say that you loved her back! She just wanted to dance with you and you took away her dream for the evening!" He punched a couch, "That at least you should understand! But no! No one can know what it is like to lose your dreams like you can, can they Harry? No one feels as beat up when the one thing the wanted is taken away from them like you do, do they! No, you are that perfect boy who understands pain so well that no one else could possibly have even a glimmer of and idea of what pain feels like! I'm sick of you and your high and mighty disposition! I'm tired of you stepping on people like they are things, you emotionless brat!"

Harry stopped and stood where he was. Why wasn't Ron letting go? It was a dead point. There was no point in continuing the argument. He was never going to yield and Ron should have known that. He never yielded to anything. He could stare Voldemort in the face and not have to back down. He turned, his fists clenched, his eyes narrowed at Ron. This was over! He wasn't going to stand for this sort of speech from Ron! Ron had no idea what it felt to…

He stopped and let his hands go loose. This was what Ron had been talking about. This was what Ron had been saying about him. It wasn't that he had turned Hermione down at all. He could have said that he was stupid for turning down such an amazing girl and the point would never have been proven since they would have had a varying view of amazing. Instead he had attacked him for his belief that no one felt emotion like he did. It was all true and he had proven it. He didn't allow himself to believe that he was causing the people around him to experience pain at his expense, but he always had been. Sirius was dead because of him. Every time he saw Dumbledore after doing something he thought was heroic, the aging headmaster always looked so tired and beaten, and that was because of him too. Everyone around him had been suffering and he hadn't been able to realize it. Everyone had been experiencing more emotion than he ever had allowed himself to and he had forced himself to believe that no one hurt like he did. Ron had known Sirius, and so had Hermione. They had lost someone when he had died too. It might not have been so close, but they had lost something.

"I…" Harry started. He looked down. He didn't know what to say other than that.

Ron stared at Harry softly. It was over. He had beaten the boy who lived. He had driven his message home and Harry finally seemed to understand what it was that he was talking about. This was a victory, so why did he feel like someone had punched him in the stomach? Why did he feel like the one who had been beaten around to room and taunted…well other than the fact that he had been the one who had been punched, which Harry never would have done if it hadn't been for the Voldemort comment, which had been a little over the top. Harry had never used any of the emotional attacks that he would have been able to. Ron knew there were half a million things that Harry could have said that would have been just a hurtful, and yet he hadn't.

Harry continued softly, "I…I didn't realize…I was worried…."

"I'm sorry…I shouldn't have said some of that." Ron spoke softly while Harry tried to fit his words together.

Harry shook his head softly, "No…I deserved everything you said. I just…well…I'm…I'm not ready for anything like what Hermione is trying to give me. I mean think about it for a moment. I am the big threat to Voldemort, so the people closest to me are going to be his targets…I'm just…I don't want you or Hermione to be in danger because you got close to me."

Ron smirked softly as he rubbed his cheek, "Harry. Who charges in right behind you when we do stupid things like chase after Voldemort? I don't think you are defending us by not getting close."

"Yeah…but you guys would just be bigger targets if I got close to you. I don't want to put either of you in danger." He leaned against a chair, exhausted from all of the emotional exertion of the argument.

Ron laughed a bit as he leaned on one of the armchairs, "Ugh…we really shouldn't argue like this. It can't be healthy for either of us…I mean I'm worn out and I didn't even punch anyone. I can't imagine how you feel."

Harry winced a little and looked into the Armchair that he was leaning in, "I'm sorry about that…I really…y'know…"

Ron nodded, "Yeah, I do. I overstepped. I shouldn't have said anything like what I did." He rubbed the back of his head while he looked around, "Well…what are we going to do now? I mean going back to the dance probably isn't smart, and while I understand why you did what you did, Hermione isn't likely to, so we probably shouldn't be down here when she gets back…"

Harry nodded, "You're probably right…"

Ron laughed as he started walking to the stair to the male dormitories, "When it comes to Hermione, I'm always right."

((AN: I know the title doesn't really relate to this chapter much. I was planning on them having some sort of heated argument and then both of them gaining a new outlook with which to look at themselves with, in which case their argument really would have been better off said since it would have given them a way to reflect on themselves, but as you can see, that didn't really happen the way I had planned. I also had some big plan to have Blake wander in, in the middle of the argument and become the target of everyone's hate, but it wouldn't have worked since he is still off with Hermione. Anyway, I hope the people who are reading this story, assuming I still have someone reading this story, are enjoying it as much as I am enjoying writing it. I'm going to take a break for a while since I'm once again out of ideas.))


	15. November Rose

Disclaimer: Yup, I still don't own Harry Potter, any of the characters that interact with him in the Harry Potter books, the title Harry Potter, or any of the ideas that are expressed within any of the Harry Potter books.

Authors note: Well…it's been a while lads, lets see if I can't still pull this off and not have you hate Blake…at least not hate him any more than you hated him before (I know there are some Malfoy fans out there and some people who just don't like original characters)

**November Rose**

A thick blanket of snow had fallen on the grounds of the school. It had left everything white, and the monotone look to the scenery made everything look dead. Even the whomping willow appeared to have less life in it than usual. The students had for the most part, stopped going outside as much. Most of them had to catch up on their studies so that they could spend their Christmas holidays back at home without having to worry about school.

Harry stared through the window of the boy's dormitory as freezing rain tapped against it before adding to the ice that now coated the window. It had been raining like this on and off for a week. The snow was no longer fit to make anything out of, and he could have given up trying to admire the scenery through the window about an hour into the first little rain. Now he just found some bizarre pleasure knowing that everything outside looked as dead as he was feeling inside.

He hadn't spoken with Hermione since the dance, and she hadn't spoken to him. Every time he'd walk into a room, she'd find something that she needed to go off to research, or some piece of homework that she hadn't yet to do. It had been most of a month since the Halloween dance, and still every time he walked into a room, Hermione found some excuse to walk right out of it.

Harry looked over to the rest of the dormitory to see Ron sitting on his bed, looking over some chocolate frog cards. Ron was the one that he really felt sorry for. He was the guy who was caught in the middle of all of this. He was the guy who didn't want to leave Harry with no one, and yet still had the biggest crush on Hermione that anyone had even thought of. Ron was the boy who knew that no matter how much he felt for Hermione, she'd never return the feelings.

Harry sighed as he looked back out of the frozen window to gaze upon the twisted and broken scenery that it allowed him to see. He had started having trouble thinking that the world didn't actually look like that. It had started when Sirius had died. Everything seemed to be black or white, and everything seemed to be at some level of dead. Nothing was alive, it was all just decaying and slowly reaching the point where it would just be soil…where it would just be worm food.

How many people had been caught in the middle of this now? How many people had died as a result of him not being able to defend them? He had started Dumbledor's army so that he'd be able to help people to defend themselves. Really, he didn't know anything about that. He couldn't even defend himself. It was all a lie to try and hide the scared little boy who was too frightened to save the people who mattered to him. It was all an act that he put on so that people wouldn't panic, because lord knows that everyone would panic the moment that they saw the boy who lived loosing his cool.

Ron had suggested a few times that they go down to see Hagrid for some tea. Harry hadn't actually been interested in tea…or Hagrid. That was something that they had done with Hermione. It seemed to be such a hallow action now that Hermione wasn't part of their little adventuring group anymore. And that's what they were, just some kids trying to find some adventure in a school filled with magic. It just wasn't good enough for them that they learned on a daily basis how to blow up canning jars, or change water pitchers into field mice. No, no, they needed more adventure in their lives. They needed to fight evil, and be famous.

Look where that had gotten them…or rather where it had gotten the people around them. Sirius was dead, and Hermione had almost died that same night. Harry had almost died…well, who could keep track of something like that? Ron, well Ron was usually more careful, but their first year he had almost gotten killed because they couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to save to world by stealing the philosophers stone before Voldemort could get his hands on it. Of course he never would have even had a chance at getting it if they hadn't decided to be heroes, but that could hardly be held against them, right?

No, no one would ever blame them for anything. They were the courageous group of heroes who would save everyone at the end of the day. They were the people that you could trust with anything. Nothing could ever tear them apart. Nothing at all. Harry frowned as he thought about that, and then leaned back against the window. The cold of the ice on the other side bit into his back and made tears form in his eyes, but it was nothing that he hadn't felt before.

"Why are you still beating yourself up, Harry?" Ron spoke softly as he flipped one of the cards over and looked over the back of it.

Harry stared blankly at Ron for a long moment as if he was carefully working over his answer before even daring to put words to the thoughts, "I don't know what you mean. I'm not beating myself up."

The Weasley boy looked up slowly and stared at the window for a few moments, "Harry. You've stopped eating the foods that you used to love…when you eat that is. You've dropped studying all together for fear that you'll run into Hermione, you've stopped spending time in the common room. You don't go out to visit Hagrid anymore. You don't talk to me in class anymore. You just nod when Snape attacks you in potions…which I have to note has begun to happen a lot less since you've closed yourself off…" Ron sighed, "Harry, you haven't been this bad since-"

"Don't say it Ron." Harry interrupted. His eyes had a fire to them, but at the same time, they were colder than the window. There wasn't the same Harry in those eyes anymore, it was just more broken scenery, "Don't."

"Harry…I'm worried about you." Ron sighed softly as he got up off of the bed, "I'm sure that…I'm sure Hermione is worried about you too."

"Why are we talking Ron? Why don't we talk about Quidditch instead?" Harry looked back out the window. That fire…that emotion that had just been there was gone. That was possibly the most frustrating thing to Ron. Harry had a problem and he wasn't going to deal with it. He was just going to bottle it up. No one knew drama like Harry did, it was true, but no one cut themselves off from the pleasures that life could give like Harry did. Harry was his own worst enemy for all of the wrong reasons.

Ron shook slightly out of anger and frustration, "I don't want to talk about Quidditch damn it! I want to talk about you! You aren't going to be able to get over this if you can't open up about it! You're just going to sit there by that window and waste your life away! You are too caught up in what went on at that stupid dance that you don't realize what you are doing to yourself and what you are doing to your friends!"

"Why don't you just leave then, Ron? I'm sure you've got better things to do, and better places to be than here." Harry said softly. There was no emotion in his voice. He didn't turn to look at Ron, he just stared out the window and spoke the words.

Ron stared at the boy. Harry had become so lost inside of himself that it was hard to recognize him. He was really just an empty shell now. He wasn't the boy who lived, so much as the boy who had taken a bit longer to die. He knew that from Harry's perspective things were probably a little bit grim, but that was what he should be working to fix, not what should dominate his life and leave him with nothing but pain.

"Harry…I want to help you get out of this…it's destroying you." Ron stared at Harry, tears ready to roll down his cheeks.

Harry continued to stare out the window, "I'm not worth saving, Ron…and I'm not worth dying for…why don't you just leave me alone?"

Ron winced, forcing the tears to roll down his cheeks as he turned and started to walk to the door of the boy's dormitory. He made it to the door and gave one final look back to his friend. He was lost now. There was nothing that could be said or done to save him. If Harry was going to come out of this he was going to have to do it by himself and he had made it perfectly clear to everyone. He didn't want to be saved, and in his eyes everything would have been better if it had been him who had died rather than Sirius...or even Cedric.

"Goodbye Harry…I'll see you around sometime…" Ron spoke softly before he closed the door behind him, leaving Harry in the darkness that mimicked what he was feeling so well.

☼

Hermione stared down at the text of the large book that she had been skimming through. She hadn't actually been able to retain any of it. Reading had been difficult since she had received her answer from Harry, but then again, spending any amount of time in one place was hard for her since she had received her answer from Harry. It was difficult to accept that he didn't love her as much as she had thought he would. It was more difficult to accept that everyone now knew exactly how much that was true.

"So…why is it that you always spend so much time studying?" The familiar voice of the crimson haired by came from over her shoulder, "You're probably the smartest student in the school and you can't tear yourself away from these books."

Hermione just shook her head. She wasn't really sure what to think about Blake. On one hand he was a rebel who seemed to be just out to cause damage and make himself look good, but on the other he seemed to be a genuinely nice guy. He was like the Harry that she had expected to run into at the dance. He was the kind of person who would give you an honest answer even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear and then apologize and try to cover up for it when he found out it wasn't the answer you were looking for. He was brilliant and simple all at the same time.

She tried not to look at him as she answered, "It's hard to stay smart. People are still finding new things about magic, and you always need to keep up with the new discoveries or else you will fall behind. I have to work twice as hard cine my parents aren't really into magic…"

Blake chuckled softly as he pulled up a chair beside her, "So what exactly is it that you are studying right now?"

Hermione stopped and took a deep breath, "Werewolves."

Blake smiled and with his finger closed the book on Hermione, "You were reading about shape shifting spells actually, and while the word werewolf did appear in that particular passage, it was as a comparison rather than a topic of discussion." He stared at her as she pouted, not only because she had been wrong, but because he had closed the book.

She stopped and then looked over to him, "How would you know that, anyway?"

Blake shrugged and frowned softly, "I sort of come from the opposite kind of family that you do. My mom is a bit too much into magic for my taste, and we've got books like this one at home. I read it once upon a time."

Hermione stared blankly at the back of the book and then slowly turned her attention to Blake. He was sitting there with a thoughtful look on his face, crimson strands of hair falling before his emerald eyes, almost as if to hide them, but let you know that they were there at the same time. He was wearing his usual school robes and the black shirt beneath that made him look more like a teacher than a student in one of the four houses. In fact, he didn't seem to have anything that showed that he was a member of any of the houses. It was odd.

Her eyes settled on a piece of metal that was sticking out of the top buttonhole of his school robes. It seemed to be a pendant or pin of some kind that had been shaped into a starburst, or possibly some kind of flower. She gently brought her hand up to trace her fingers over the accessory.

"What's this?" She asked quietly. She felt silly when she heard her voice. It was almost like she was some shy little school girl. She was sure that Blake was going to make fun of her for it or something.

Blake looked down at her fingers for a moment, "It's a November Rose…It's supposed to bring good luck and ward of evil…I haven't run into much of either in my lifetime." He slowly brought his hands up and carefully detached the item from his robe.

He held it in his palm for a moment before closing his fingers over it. The fingers of his free hand gently, yet firmly, took hold of Hermione's wrist leaving her hand palm upward. He carefully dropped the November Rose into Hermione's open hand and closed her fingers over it. His emerald eyes remained focused on her brown eyes. Hermione quickly looked away, a soft blush forming in her cheeks.

She spoke quickly with a slight unsteadiness to her words, "I can't take this. It's yours. You should keep it."

"I think at the moment you are in need of some good luck a lot more than I am." Blake's voice was calm as he spoke, "Besides, you can always give it back to me later. It isn't like I'm going to suddenly vanish or anything, and if I do, I doubt that little guy will save me." He chuckled softly.

Hermione stared down at the piece of metal for a long few moments before she managed to find the words to be able to make a response, "I'll return it to you. You know that, right?" Blake nodded, "I just…I can't keep this…It's yours."

"I know, Hermione. I know. I trust you." He laughed softly, "I just couldn't stand watching you pretend to read. Why aren't you doing something with your friends? I'm sure they'd love to talk to you, and at least then you wouldn't be in a stuffy old library pretending to read."

Hermione stared at the book. She hadn't wanted to spend time with Harry, and she really didn't want to spend time with Ron alone. None of this felt right. It didn't feel right to be just hanging around with Ron after all they had been through together. She didn't want to even talk about Harry after how that had all played out. Things were just better when you didn't have to talk to anyone and when you thought that everyone really just didn't want to talk to you either.

She sighed softly, "No…I don't think it would do for me to hang around them…not yet. Everything is still so tense…"

"So your only friends are Harry and that Ron fellow?" Blake raised an eyebrow, "I find that hard to believe. A beautiful girl like you is friendless except for a guy who's either loved or hated by everyone and average Joe number one?"

Hermione furrowed her brow, "They are my friends you know. You shouldn't make fun of them. I don't see you with many friends." She brought her hand to her lips. What else had he said? Did he really say that about her? Did he actually mean it?

"Sorry princess. I suppose I really don't know what I'm talking about." He shrugged as he got up and turned to leave.

Hermione got up quickly abandoning the book, "No, wait!"

Blake turned on his heel softly, looking back to Hermione, "What is it, princess?"

Hermione growled softly at being called that, not once, but twice, "Here," She held out the November Rose, "You should take this back." A slight blush crept into her cheeks as she stood there holding the pin out for him to take for what felt like an eternity.

"I told you, princess, you're going to hold onto that for me for a while." He smiled softly and turned back away, "Maybe the next time we see each other." He then wandered out of the library, leaving Hermione standing there, holding out the small piece of metal, a few female students who had been writing notes back and forth to each other giggled and started writing down more franticly as if afraid that if they didn't hurry they might get caught gossiping.

Hermione sighed as she dropped her arms to her sides. That boy was intolerable sometimes. She didn't know how anyone could deal with him, or why anyone would even try. He was just so frustrating and everything he said aggravated her. What was he trying to say, calling her princess, and what did he mean when he said that she was a beautiful girl! He didn't know what he was talking about! He was just so…

"EUGH!" Hermione marched off to the table that she had been at, picked up her book, and stomped off in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. She needed to take a shower and then she needed to get some more studying done. What she didn't need to do was worry about that Blake character and the sort of things he said.

☼

The hot water poured down from the showerhead. It cascaded over hair and skin before slowly reaching the tub where it ran down towards the drain and was gone. Hermione had been standing in the shower with her head pressed against the wall for several minutes now. She had come in here to get away from having to think and had only ended up thinking more. It bothered her that she couldn't stop thinking about the crimson haired boy. It bothered her even more that she didn't think about Harry as much as she had gotten used to.

She slowly picked up the soap bar from its dish on the wall of the shower and ran it over her arms, leaving a nice coat of lather to be washed off and away by the water that rained down on her from the shower. It was frustrating that she couldn't figure out what was going on, or what it was that she should do to fix it. She was probably the smartest student in Hogwarts, and definitely the smartest in her year. She of course had another year to trudge through, but if she couldn't figure this out what hope did she have at the real world.

She was stuck in a giant logic puzzle. She was sure that if she buried herself in enough books for a long enough amount of time eventually something would come up that would be the answer to all of her problems. She knew that there had to be some intelligent way to go about figuring this out that wouldn't leave her in a difficult position and didn't leave any chance that things could get worse.

The bar of soap slowly began to become slippery in Hermione's hand as she caught herself lathering up the same arm that she had just rinsed off. She closed her eyes and moved to washing off her legs. It was difficult to even shower without concentrating now. It bothered her that she was allowing this to make everyday activities more difficult for her, but she needed to come up with some sort of answer that would allow her to move on with her life and concentrate more on her studies.

Her marks had begun to slip a little bit in the past month. If things continued like this she might not have perfect marks going into the final exams. She wasn't willing to allow that to happen! She needed to get those marks so that she could move on to bigger things. She wasn't even sure what she was going to do with her life. She just wanted to study.

She sighed as she leaned back against the shower wall. Maybe her parents were right. Maybe she needed to decide on something that she wanted to do and just focus on that. They kept telling her that there was nothing that she'd be able to do if she just kept her head stuck in a book all day. She was tired of them always telling her that she needed to do something with her life, that she couldn't just study for ever. She knew that she'd need to do something, she knew that eventually she'd need to pick some sort of a job. She just…she wanted them to get off of her back and let her decide in her own time.

Hermione poured some shampoo into her hand and shivered at the sensation of the coolness of the shampoo compared to the heat of the water. She slowly brought her hands up and massaged the liquid into her hair producing more soap suds that slowly fell of and ran down the drain with the rest of her shower water. She watched silently as the surd snaked down the drain and vanished into the inky black void, never to be seen again.

She sighed as her thoughts traveled back to her life. That was how she felt really. She just wanted people to stop comparing her to Harry. It wasn't like Harry was smarter than her, he was just…he was just Harry! He wasn't even that special, yet when she stood beside him his shadow made her invisible. She was the smart one! She was the one who always thought of what needed to be thought of! Harry was just…he was just a boy, just like Ron. She was tired of how everyone felt that he was different from everyone else somehow. She didn't want to be ignored because Harry was so special.

She rinsed out her hair and turned off the taps. Her hand quickly found a white fluffy towel that she wrapped around herself. She sat on the edge of the tap and looked down at the clothes that she had brought so that she could change into something for dinner. She sighed softly as she looked at how plain they all looked. Some of it was even bordering on tomboyish. There was nothing in this pile of clothing that was going to make her stand out to anyone. There wasn't anything that was going to make her special. When she left the room, she was going to cease being Hermione, and once again start being a Hogwarts Student, Gryffindor house.

She sighed as she put on her under clothes, followed by the white blouse, and the gray vest, adorned with Gryffindor colours around the arms and neck. She stared down at the faded blue jeans. Her skirt sat back in the dormitory, ready to be worn, but it just…it didn't feel right to her. It hadn't felt right to be drawing attention upon herself since the dance. It was obvious to everyone that she wasn't as beautiful as she had been pretending to be. Besides, everyone else wore those same skirts, and she was hardly any more special if she was wearing those.

She slowly pulled up the jeans and did the button on the front before zipping them up. She sighed as she pulled her hair into a loose ponytail and pulled on her school robe. She looked down at the silly girly socks that her parents kept buying her. She hadn't had the heart to tell her parents that she didn't really like them, so she suffered the consequences now by having no other socks. The silly little teddy bear print, and the pinkish tint to the socks made her feel goofy when she was wearing them. She sighed softly in defeat as she pulled the socks on and stared at her shoes.

It was then that she noticed something in her left shoe. She picked up the shoe, turned it over and shook it slightly before something fell out making a soft noise that could only be metal connecting against tile. She slipped the shoe on before looking down at what had come out of it. She looked at the small piece of metal that had been formed into what appeared to be a starburst for a long moment while she put on her other shoe.

Slowly she picked up the small item and slipped it into the top buttonhole of her school robe. It fit so perfectly there and when she had finished attaching it, making sure that it wouldn't move she walked over to the mirror in the room. It had become fogged up from the steamy shower, but she quickly bunched up her sleeve and cleared enough of it to be able to see her reflection in the mirror. She slowly pulled her hair out of the ponytail and smiled softly at what she saw.

She looked down at the November Rose and grinned, "Sure, why not?"


	16. The Season of Giving

Disclaimer: I still lack ownership over Harry Potter, any of the character's interacting with Harry Potter, any of the ideas or titles of or relating to Harry Potter.

**The Season of Giving**

Christmas Holidays had just started leaving the school almost empty from students, since most of them had returned to their homes for the holiday. Harry lay in bed staring at the cover of his four-poster bed. He sighed softly, thinking briefly about how little he planned to do today. He hadn't seen Hermione yesterday and was actually pretty sure that she wasn't at school anymore. Ron hadn't spend time talking with him since they had that little disagreement about what he should be doing and where he should be going.

Harry didn't want to go outside anymore, and he didn't want to spend time around Hagrid. He wanted to just sit by himself and work all of this out. He didn't want to have people trying to tell him what he should or shouldn't be doing. He wanted to find his own excuse to figure out what to do or what not to do. He wanted to go back and take Cedric's place. He wanted for Neville to have been chosen to be the boy who lived instead. He was tired of being the boy who lived.

He looked down at his watch to find that it was around six o'clock. He didn't really want to be awake this early in the morning, but then again, it really didn't make that much of a difference. It wasn't like he had anything to do later, or anyone to talk to. He may have been the boy who lived, but he was finding out more and more every day how lonely a job that was. He sighed softly as he pulled out his wand and tapped it against the glass, causing the ice on the other side to melt away. He stared down at the amazing whiteness of the outside world.

He looked down at the grounds for a long moment before looking back at the dorm room, and finally deciding that he needed to go outside for a while. He slowly got up, walked over to his trunk, and pulled out all of the clothes that he would need to keep warm outside in the cold weather. He pulled on the sweater that Mrs. Weasley had knit for him, followed by his school robes. He wrapped the gold and red Gryffindor scarf around his neck, and then pulled on a pair of red gloves.

He adjusted his glasses on his nose and pulled on a pair of socks and boots. He looked at himself for a few moments before heading out of the dormitory and down to the common room. Everything was silent and still, almost as if everyone was dead, or like the school had been abandoned. It didn't bother him. It didn't bother him that the atmosphere was lonely this early in the morning.

He smiled softly before he got out of the common room and made a run don all of the stairs. His feet made soft sounds as he ran down the stairs and then down the halls to get outside. For the first time since Sirius died he wasn't pitying himself. For the first time since the Hermione incident he had a smile on his face and wasn't locking his emotions and thoughts inside of himself.

He ran outside, the snow crunching under his winter boots. He slowly dropped to his knees and started gathering snow, a smile on his face. He had never had the chance to do this before. He had heard of it, and read about it, but he had never been allowed to play in the snow, of just never found the time.

He smiled softly as he formed a large ball out of the snow that was wet from the freezing rain that they had been having lately. It soaked through his gloves quickly leaving them wet, but he paid little attention to them as he made the large ball of snow. He quickly rolled it over the grounds, the wet snow sticking to the ball, and lifting up some of the blades of grass as he rolled it over the snow.

He smiled softly as he finished off the first overly large snowball and leaned against it. His breath came out in clouds of fog. He laughed softly as he pulled off his glasses and cleaned off the lenses with his thumbs. He smiled softly as he looked back up at the sky before pushing off of the snowball and wandering forward, holding his arms out as if trying to hold up the sky itself. He continued to laugh as he continued walking forward, spinning slowly as snow began to fall softly.

He smiled softly as he looked back to the snow and started throwing together another snowball and rolling it over the grounds, leaving a path cleared of snow behind him. He laughed as he lifted the second finished snowball and placed it on top of the first one. He let out a few labored breaths after the work of lifting the snowball. He sighed softly as he leaned back and sat against the bottom snowball, looking at the snow that was still falling around him and couldn't help but forget about all of the problems that he was having.

He pushed off of the snowball and went back to working at making the third and final snowball to make the snowman. Everything was so much simpler working on a snowman, than it was when he was trying to figure out how the world was supposed to go. He sighed softly as he began thinking about how terrible his situation was again. He ran his hand through his hair and stared at the sky for a few moments.

☼

Hermione sat crouched up in the corner of the dark room, lit only by the crimson flames of a few of the candles. She had given up on the chance that she'd be saved. She had given up on the chance that someone was going to be able to save her from the silhouette that had been talking for the past few moments. She had stopped listening at the moment that silhouette had began speaking.

"I see Harry Potter's friend hasss given up on the hope that sssomeone will come to sssave her." The cruel voice of Voldemort growled at her. His eyes, crimson in colour, glowed as he glared at Hermione.

Hermione said nothing. She was done crying. It didn't matter. No one was going to come to her rescue anymore. It was obvious that Harry didn't care about her, and while Ron did care about her, he wasn't the bravest in the bunch, and wasn't any match for Voldemort's magic. No, instead she was going to die…most likely slowly, at the hands of one of Voldemort's curses.

The thought almost interested her. She wondered if perhaps she could get a quill and a piece of parchment to write the experience down so that other wizards would know what it felt like to be tortured to death by one of the unforgivable curses. She knew that the information might prove useful to someone, some day. She had already found out that they were really only any good if you actually meant it, but that was the same with most spells. You had to actually want what it was that you were attempting to do, or else it just wouldn't happen.

A sick laugh came from Voldemort, "I sssee that you truly have given up on your friendsss coming to sssave you…well…sssince you ssseem ssso ssscertain…" He raised his wand, and a green glow began to surround it.

"Hermione!"

Hermione woke up with a start and looked down to the book that she had been reading in the library. She wasn't exactly sure why she had been spending her Christmas holiday studying, but she still was. After a few moments of thought she realized that it was probably an excuse to stay away from Harry, but she was fairly sure that she could come up with something better than that. After a few more moments of through she realized that the best way to get back at Harry would probably be to start going with Ron. It was then that she realized that someone had been talking to her.

"-and I still don't understand what is so special about the eye of a newt…Hermione, are you okay?" Neville was staring at her with concern in his eyes.

Hermione shook her head for a moment to clear her head, "I'm sorry Neville, what were you saying? I suppose I drifted off there."

Neville sighed softly, "Hermione…I know I'm not on the same level as you when it comes to this thing, but really, if it's that boring to try and teach me, I'm sure I can find someone else to do it…" He closed his book.

"No, Neville. It's fine, I'm just…I'm just a bit tired is all. I haven't been sleeping well." Hermione admitted before yawning a little.

Neville watched her closely, "What's wrong? Pillows not comfortable? I know the pillows on my bead aren't very comfortable and that sometimes keeps me awake, but I've been getting used to it, and it doesn't really bother me that much anymore."

"No, it's just…" Hermione stopped, unsure of whether or not to tell Neville about the strange reoccurring nightmare that she had been having that had been keeping her sleep from being peaceful, "I just can't get to sleep." She lied calmly.

"Well then. You should take a nap or something, Hermione. I care about you." Neville blushed instantly, "Not like Ron cares about you, or like how you care about Harry mind you, not that I'd mind if you-"

Hermione put a finger against Neville's lips, "I know what you mean Neville. It's okay. I'm okay. Obviously this is bothering you, so I will go try and take a nap, or have some fun or something, okay?"

Neville nodded softly and got up, taking the book under his arm and walking, a little faster than he usually did towards the Gryffindor common room. Hermione sighed as he wandered off, forgetting his quill and parchment behind. She had gotten used to picking up the things that Neville forgot. She had been doing things like that for him since the very first day that they had met on the train to Hogwarts when he had lost his toad. She remembered that. Life was so much simpler then, when the biggest thing she had to worry about was whether or not people were calling her names.

She didn't want to be the brainy girl that everyone went to so they could finish their homework. She wanted to be something that people noticed. She wanted to be looked at like a beautiful flower…or something. She blushed a little bit realizing how stupid that last part sounded. She sighed as she took the pin out of her top buttonhole and ran her fingers over it. She thought that it would have helped her, and it being in the shape of a flower had probably been the cause of the flower simile…

She sighed softly realizing that she was analyzing everything that she was doing and thinking. She could analyze every other aspect of her life, but when it came to that nightmare she was left completely in the dark. She had no idea what she was looking at when she was in the crimson world, with the dark lord of wizards. She didn't know what was going on, or why any of it was happening. She didn't know how she had been captured, or why she had gone there in the first place. It was so completely stupid, and didn't make any sense. She cursed under her breath for not having clearer and easier to understand dreams.

"You need to take a break from studying." A voice came from behind her, breaking her from her thoughts. She sighed, that was one of the more odd things she had experienced today. She had managed to think though an entire conversation with Neville, but then the slightest thing could break her concentration right after that.

She turned in her chair quickly and looked into the emerald green eyes of Blake. She blushed a deep red at how close her face was to his, "Um…wait, why are you here?"

Blake took a step back and held a hand to his heart in mock hurt, before laughing and going back to normal, "I came to drag you around for a while and make sure that you have lots of fun, because it's Christmas eve, and you are supposed to have fun on Christmas!"

Hermione groaned as Blake took a hold of her hand and gently pulled to suggest she get up before he really did drag her around the castle, "Did Neville put you up to this?"

Blake stopped, "Neville's the one who blows stuff up in potions class, right?"

Hermione's eyes narrowed instantly, "You don't have to make fun of him for it." He voice had a warning tone in it.

Blake chuckled, "Hey, I wish I could get some of the stuff in potions class to blow up. I could learn a thing or two from him. Right now though, you are going to learn a thing or two about fun from me, because you can't have real fun in a library unless it has adventure books in it."

Hermione groaned. She didn't want to be dragged around the school to have Blake's kind of fun. She wanted to sit here and study. She was likely to end up running into Harry and or Ron if she followed Blake around, and she really didn't want that to happen. She wasn't ready to face Harry yet, and she wasn't much ready to try and explain to Ron that she wasn't ready to face Harry yet. None of this was working out, and she wanted Blake to just leave her alone.

He stopped and sighed softly, "Look, Hermione. You aren't doing so well."

She raised an eyebrow and looked at Blake demandingly, "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means," Started Blake, "that you have been dropping yourself into these books, and into your studies ever since Harry said that he wasn't going to be your man. This isn't healthy, Hermione. Your marks haven't been increasing, so obviously nothing that you are studying is sticking, you keep falling asleep. Something is very wrong here and if you don't start moving on and doing things that make you happy this thing with Harry is going to consume you. It's sucking the happiness out of your life faster than a dementor could, princess."

She sighed as she stared down at the book that sat in front of her. She heard what he was saying, and not only did it make sense, it was true. She was letting this thing with Harry take over her life. Harry didn't like her and when she had found out it had destroyed what she had accepted as her world. She knew that he felt bad about it too. Ron kept telling her about how bad Harry was looking, even though she didn't want to hear about it anymore. She knew he felt bad for hurting her, but all she wanted to do was to hurt him just as much. She knew that he just wasn't able to get over that stupid Cho, and that was what was really holding him back.

Hermione looked up and stared at Blake for a few moments, "What happened to the anti-social student that didn't like to talk to people. You used to be that, and now you are this…this party-crazy, fun-loving…thing…"

"Hey, careful who you are calling a thing." He chuckled softly as he looked up at the ceiling.

Hermione smiled wickedly, "Well, then. What should I call you? I'm having trouble associating the word student to you." She giggled.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I don't seem particularly bright. Thanks." He rolled his eyes, "See, this is the kind of things that students are supposed to do on Christmas eve. This is, believe it or not, fun."

"Oh my!" Hermione brought a hand to her mouth in mock shock, "Fun? But I don't have fun. I'm just a study person."

Blake chuckled softly and closed her book in front of her, "And that's what I'm going to change."

☼

Blake and Hermione walked into the great hall and looked around at a few students who were eating candy and playing wizard chess. Blake smiled as he looked over towards Hermione, who was still looking around the great hall and paying close attention to ornaments that hung from the ceiling. She didn't seem that interested in what Blake had to say, and what he was going to do.

Blake sat down at one of the tables, "We should definitely play some wizard chess, I think."

Hermione's eyes snapped back to Blake briefly before going back to the ornaments, "Wizard chess is an example of how barbaric this wizard world can be. Why would I want to expose myself to that kind of brutality?"

Blake smiled softly, "Obviously wizard chess wasn't something that you studied enough of." He gently leaned back and sighed, "It's also about a lot of strategy and logic." He sighed softly, "I really thought you'd be into wizard chess…"

Hermione rolled her eyes. She was tired of being the smart girl, so why was everyone still treating her like one? She didn't want to be the smart girl that was only paid attention to because of her brain. She wanted to be seen as something more, even if it was Blake who saw it. She wanted to be beautiful.

"I suppose you're right, this would be a bit like studying again, and that is what we are trying to avoid." Blake smiled softly as he ran his hand through his hair, "Well…I suppose we could go find something to do that doesn't have anything to do with logic," He chuckled, "or brutality."

Hermione sighed, "I just don't think that I'm going to enjoy anything that you would have fun doing."

Blake sighed softly. Of course she wasn't going to enjoy any of this if she wasn't going to try to enjoy it. She didn't want to enjoy any of it so of course she wouldn't. She just wanted to sit in her corner and sulk over the fact that Harry didn't want to be her boy toy. He was tired of her acting sorry for herself and sulking. It wasn't healthy for anyone to be doing that, and it wasn't necessary that anyone do it over Harry Potter.

"Alright, then…I'll pick something that I'm sure you wouldn't have expected as something that I'd find as fun." Blake smiled softly.

Hermione rolled her eyes. She didn't expect this to be anything that she would enjoy either. It wasn't like she had anything in common with this usually aloof, but apparently party-crazy student. She wanted to just go back to her dorm now and just sleep for a while or something. She would have been having a whole lot more fun if she wasn't hanging around here. She sighed as Blake took a hold of her wrist and pulled her along behind him.

"Close your eyes, Hermione." Blake spoke softly. To this Hermione rolled her eyes again. She wasn't sure that she was able to trust Blake. He seemed nice, but he was a boy, and he had the same hormones rushing through his body as Harry did.

Blake stopped and stared at her as Hermione raised an eyebrow and watched him for a few minutes, "C'mon, close your eyes. I promise that I'm not going to do anything to creep you out."

Hermione glared at him, "But I'm not sure that I trust you." She watched him as he sighed softly, "Fine, I'll close my eyes, but I swear…"

"You really shouldn't, it isn't very ladylike." Blake smiled as Hermione grumbled a response and closed her eyes.

She was lead down hallways and up stairs. She wasn't exactly sure where she was going, but that was because usually she had her vision to help her find out where she was. She wondered for a moment why she was allowing this boy who was almost a stranger to drag her around the school. That hasn't been entirely fair, and she knew that the moment that she had thought it. He wasn't exactly a stranger, but it didn't really help that she didn't know much about the crimson haired boy. She just wasn't sure that she'd be able to trust the boy.

That hadn't been entirely fair either. She was pretty sure that she could trust Blake, she just wasn't so sure that she would be able to trust herself. She wasn't sure that she could trust herself to continue to wait for Harry if she continued hanging around Blake. There was something about Blake that made her uneasy. It made her wonder if she had been waiting for the right person all that time that she thought Harry was who she was meant to be with, or the one that she was meant to wait for.

Blake pulled Hermione up another set of stairs. The new room smelled of animals. She furrowed her brow as the smells rushed into her nose. This didn't seem fun at all. She wasn't sure how Blake could have thought she would enjoy anything like this. She opened her eyes her eyes and looked around at the inside of the rookery. ((AN: RookeryOwlery)) She wasn't at all sure why she was here.

"Why are we-?" Hermione started but was quickly interrupted by Blake.

"I thought you were supposed to have your eyes closed. You missed the amazing illusion." Blake frowned, "Well, I guess you might as well not miss the entire thing, and come to this window."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she started walking to the window where Blake was standing, "Honestly, why would you think that I would enjoy being in this sort of p-?" She stopped as she reached the window and looked out at the scenery that was covered in a white blanket of snow. Everything looked absolutely beautiful as the sun slowly set, lighting the white snow in beautiful pinks and purples, "…place…"

Blake smiled as he looked over the scenery with Hermione, "I don't know, I thought you might enjoy the scenery. I suppose I was wrong, I guess we can leave now, I'm sure that we can find something that will be more interesting to you."

Hermione shook her head and said nothing. She was speechless, "What…why…how did you know about this?"

"As you put it so delicately, I'm aloof man…" He watched the scenery for a few moments before turning his attention back to Hermione, "I found all kinds of beautiful things in the school."

Hermione continued to watch the scenery. She smiled as she looked briefly to Blake before looking back to the beautiful scene and watching smoke lift from the chimney of Hagrid's hut. She looked back to Blake and noticed that he was staring at her. She blushed slightly as she realized what he was saying and what she was saying it about. She quickly turned her head back to the scenery and tried not to let the knowledge that Blake was watching her to get to her.

Blake smiled softly, "So, are you coming with me?"

Hermione's head snapped back to look at Blake with wide eyes of shock, "Why are we leaving?"

Blake smiled softly as he reached over and gently ran his hand through her hair, "We don't have to leave if you don't want. You just didn't seem that interested in being here for the scenery."

"Are you suggesting that I'm here for something else?" Hermione turned her attention to Blake, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

Blake watched Hermione for a long few minutes before he sighed as if in defeat and turned his attention back to the scenery. He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side as he looked down at the scenery below, as the sun sank behind the trees of the forbidden forest. He smiled softly as he stared at the scene.

Hermione blushed and felt the harsh burn of embarrassment crawl into her cheeks and the rest of her body. He smiled as he looked out at the scenery and then looked back at her. She had gone completely stiff and wasn't sure what she was going to do next, or how she was going to go about doing it. She…this was the sort of thing that she didn't trust herself about.

Hermione sighed, "You know…I just…I…"

"It's okay. I'm sure if you just calm down and take a moment whatever it id that you want to say will come together." He watched her as she furrowed her eyebrow and tried to think of something to say that wouldn't make her look stupid.

Hermione took a deep breath, "Why are you being so nice to me? Ever since we met you have been sticking up for me and being nice to me." She pushed out of his hug and turned to face him, "Why are you making this connection with me over anyone else?"

Blake stared at her and watched her for a few long moments before looking back out at the scenery. He wasn't sure how to answer her question. He honestly didn't know what had got him to the point where he had been attracted to her. He hadn't really thought that much about it. There had been some other girls who had been attractive, but then again, none of them had been being made fun of.

Blake smiled softly as he thought about it. None of that had really made the difference though. Sure that was when he had started to pay closer attention to her, but that was just the start of it. She had turned out to be more attractive when he spent more time getting to know her. She was smart, she was open about her feelings for people, and she was attractive, even if she didn't realize it. She was perfect in his eyes, and he couldn't tell why Harry would have said that he didn't want to get closer to her…unless he was gay.

He sighed softly, "Hermione…I…" He looked back to the scenery, "You're just perfect, Hermione."

Hermione blushed deeply and stared into Blake's eyes, "What…what do you mean?"

"Hermione, you're smart," She rolled her eyes at that, "your open about your feelings," she frowned, because that was what had got her into the situation in the first place, "and you're beautiful."

Her heart stopped for a moment. She watched him for a few long moments, "W-what did you say?"

"Which part?" He watched her closely, "That you were attractive?"

Hermione swallowed slowly as she watched Blake, "Do you really think I'm…beautiful?"

He laughed softly, "I've been telling you that the whole time."

She blinked as she looked up at an Owl that was coming in off of the forbidden forest. She watched as the owl arrived at the rookery and landed in a perch above them. She blinked as she looked up and noticed that a leafy plan hanging from its talons. She blushed a deeper shade of crimson as she realized what the plant was.

Blake looked at the plant and then looked at Hermione, "Hmm…looks like someone brought us some mistletoe."

Hermione continued to blush as she stared into Blake's eyes, "Well…you know what they say about mistletoe…luck stuff and all."

Blake smiled softly and brought his face closer to Hermione's whispering softly, "I guess."

Hermione closed her eyes, the blush going more extreme as she gently brought her face forward, closer to Blake's. The stars sparkled gently as the owls looked down at Hermione and Blake as they gently god closer. Gently their lips touched in an innocent kiss, Hermione's cheeks burning with embarrassment as she and Blake kissed, all thoughts of Harry, or anything else that had been going on in her mind before just faded and vanished.

She smiled softly as the embarrassment faded and her arms gently wrapped around Blake's waist. She wasn't thinking about whether or not she could trust herself to wait for Harry. She wasn't thinking about Harry at all anymore. She wasn't thinking about how she was a genius and that was the only reason anyone had ever spent any time around her. All of her thoughts dissolved into the sweet kiss.

((Author's Note: First off, I know that it is actually an owlrey, but I also know that every time I put that it tells me the spelling is wrong. A rookery is the roosting spot of a rook, which is, from what I can figure, an ancestor of the crow. Anyway, for a double sized chapter and not only mentioning Neville, but having him talk, I think my little phobia of spelling mistakes in the actual writing can be overlooked this once, how about you? Anyway, reviews are my lifeblood, and I'd like to get more before I go out and write more uncharacteristically large chapters. I apologize a million times for anyone who doesn't like original characters coming in and messing up all of your dream pairings, but seriously…the depression act was starting to get to me.))


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